Peak color, most of the stand2 NovAim for 1 to 4 Nov
In the wilderness today, Sep 25Still green
white oak and black oak
shagbark hickory and sugar maple, peak Oct 27
Peak color should arrive around 27 Oct for the shagbark hickory and sugar maple, and around 5 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 Upper Buffalo Wilderness Nearly all of the wilderness is in Newton County, which is still green today.By elevation The wilderness runs from about 1,409 to 2,196 feet. That’s 2 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Nov 2, the low ground holds until about Nov 4, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 1,750 to 2,000 foot band.
2,000–2,250 ftStill greenpeak Nov 245%
1,750–2,000 ftStill greenpeak Nov 231%
1,500–1,750 ftStill greenpeak Nov 315%
1,250–1,500 ftStill greenpeak Nov 410%
SepOctNov
Height off 3DEP inside the wilderness’s own boundary; each band carries the date our model gives that elevation, corrections and all. The percentage is how much of the wilderness stands in it.
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.
Sunday 1 November to Monday 2 November
You’ll find it peak color up high, nearly peak lower down.
Up at 2,000 feet the stands peak around Nov 2; down at 1,500 feet they hold on until about Nov 4. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
2,000–2,250 ftPeak colorpeak Nov 2
1,750–2,000 ftPeak colorpeak Nov 2
1,500–1,750 ftPeak colorpeak Nov 3
1,250–1,500 ftNearly peakpeak Nov 4
Where to drive
Route 7 Scenic Byway, about 18 miles · Pig Trail Scenic Byway (Route 23), about 21 miles · Talimena National Scenic Byway, about 106 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
