When is peak fall color at Grand Canyon National Park?

Our forecast puts peak color at Grand Canyon National Park around 26 Oct. The four days to aim for are 25 to 28 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Grand Canyon National Park Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Grand Canyon National Park?

Quaking Aspen, Bigtooth Maple, Gambel Oak, Arizona Sycamore, Fremont Cottonwood. Aspens on the San Francisco Peaks turn gold above 8,000 feet, Gambel oaks go orange and russet at mid-elevations, and cottonwoods line the creek bottoms in butter yellow.

Peak color26 OctAim for 25 to 28 Oct

In the park today, Sep 25Still green

Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.

16 reports came in from Coconino County this week, 15 of them still green and 1 of them patchy color. They moved our date 2 days earlier. See the county on the map.

Still greenStartingNearly peakPeakPast peakNo fall canopy we forecastInside the line, each band of elevation is painted on its own date.

Around Grand Canyon National Park Coconino County holds most of the park and is starting to turn today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 18 days earlier than the park’s own stands: the park is still green. Mohave County, to the southwest, is 21 days behind.

By elevation The park runs from about 2,713 to 8,138 feet. That’s 19 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 9, the low ground holds until about Oct 28, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 2,000 to 4,000 foot band.

8,000–10,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 96%
6,000–8,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1523%
4,000–6,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2244%
2,000–4,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2827%

Height off 3DEP inside the park’s own boundary; each band carries the date our model gives that elevation, corrections and all. The percentage is how much of the park stands in it.

That’s 2 days later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, which shifts peak color.

The place

A mile deep, 277 river miles long, up to 18 miles wide. The Colorado River spent 5 to 6 million years carving through rock layers that span nearly 2 billion years of Earth's history. You stand at the rim and your brain simply refuses to process the scale of it.

Established 1919. About 6.4 million/year visitors.

Plan this trip

If you can only come on certain days

Set the days you can be here. Everything under them answers for those days, not for peak.

ArrivingLeaving

Sunday 25 October to Monday 26 October

You’ll find it just past peak up high, nearly peak lower down.

Up at 6,000 feet the stands peak around Oct 15; down at 4,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 28. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

6,000–8,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 15
4,000–6,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 22
2,000–4,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 28

Where to drive: Boulder Mountain (UT 12), about 147 miles
What turns: quaking aspen, Gambel oak, bigtooth maple, serviceberry
Entrance: $35

What turns, and when

quaking aspen71%
Gambel oak17%
bigtooth maple6%
serviceberry6%

Also named across Arizona, outside what the canopy read measures here: Arizona Sycamore, Fremont Cottonwood.

Aspens on the San Francisco Peaks turn gold above 8,000 feet, Gambel oaks go orange and russet at mid-elevations, and cottonwoods line the creek bottoms in butter yellow.

This forecast is built from the species that stand here, their elevation and this September’s weather, and corrected in season by cameras, foresters and our own crew. Out here we score it against NASA's satellite record of when the canopy shuts down, read inside each unit’s own boundary: two dates in three land within 12 days of it. How this map is made

All of Arizona