Peak color, most of the stand4 NovAim for 3 to 6 Nov
In the river today, Sep 25Still green
white oak and black oak
shagbark hickory and sugar maple, peak Oct 29
Peak color should arrive around 29 Oct for the shagbark hickory and sugar maple, and around 7 Nov for the white oak and black oak.
Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
No new reports from the ground here this week.
Still greenStartingNearly peakPeakPast peakNo fall canopy we forecastInside the line, each band of elevation is painted on its own date.
Around Buffalo National River Searcy County holds most of the river and is still green today. Newton County, to the southwest, is 1 day ahead. Marion County, to the northeast, is on the same day.By elevation The river runs from about 552 to 1,975 feet. That’s 5 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Nov 1, the low ground holds until about Nov 5, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 1,000 to 1,500 foot band.
2,000–2,500 ftStill greenpeak Nov 15%
1,500–2,000 ftStill greenpeak Nov 212%
1,000–1,500 ftStill greenpeak Nov 422%
500–1,000 ftStill greenpeak Nov 560%
SepOctNov
Height off 3DEP inside the river’s own boundary; each band carries the date our model gives that elevation, corrections and all. The percentage is how much of the river stands in it.
See it now PhenoCam Network, Missouri State University camera, 19 km away, captured Sep 25.
That’s 6 days later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, which shifts peak color.
Set the days you can be here. Everything under them answers for those days, not for peak.
Tuesday 3 November to Wednesday 4 November
You’ll find it peak color.
That's the day our forecast puts peak color here.
1,500–2,000 ftPeak colorpeak Nov 2
1,000–1,500 ftPeak colorpeak Nov 4
500–1,000 ftPeak colorpeak Nov 5
Where to drive
Route 7 Scenic Byway, about 18 miles · Pig Trail Scenic Byway (Route 23), about 54 miles · Route 19 through Ozark National Scenic Riverways, about 117 miles
What turns
white oak, black oak, shagbark hickory, sugar maple
What turns, and when
white oak43%
black oak28%
shagbark hickory15%
sugar maple14%
Also named across Arkansas, outside what the canopy read measures here: Red Maple, Sweetgum, Blackgum.
The Ozark Mountains produce a warm-toned fall of gold oaks, bronze hickories, crimson blackgums, and the occasional sweetgum burning purple and red along the creek bottoms.
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. We score it here against 7 long-running forest cameras: two dates in three land within 13 days of the camera’s own peak. How this map is made
