When is peak fall color at Angeles National Forest?

Our forecast puts peak color at Angeles National Forest around 1 Nov. The four days to aim for are 31 Oct to 3 Nov. We publish our error rate.

Angeles National Forest Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Angeles National Forest?

Quaking Aspen, Black Oak, Bigleaf Maple, Fremont Cottonwood, White Alder. Eastern Sierra aspens turn brilliant gold against granite walls, black oaks in Yosemite Valley go bronze and russet, and cottonwoods line the desert creeks in pale yellow.

Peak color, most of the stand1 NovAim for 31 Oct to 3 Nov

In the forest today, Sep 25Still green

California black oak and blue oak

valley oak, peak Nov 18

Peak color should arrive around 28 Oct for the California black oak and blue oak, and around 18 Nov for the valley oak.

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

4 reports came in from Los Angeles County this week, 3 of them patchy color and 1 of them just starting. Our date held. 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 Angeles National Forest Nearly all of the forest is in Los Angeles County, which is still green today.

By elevation The forest runs from about 1,167 to 6,532 feet. That’s 16 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 17, the low ground holds until about Nov 2, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 0 to 2,000 foot band.

6,000–8,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 178%
4,000–6,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2327%
2,000–4,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2851%
0–2,000 ftStill greenpeak Nov 214%

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

That’s 1 day later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, which shifts peak color.

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

Saturday 31 October to Sunday 1 November

You’ll find it fading up high, peak color lower down.

Up at 6,000 feet the stands peak around Oct 17; down at 2,000 feet they hold on until about Nov 2. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

6,000–8,000 ftFadingpeak Oct 17
4,000–6,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 23
2,000–4,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 28
0–2,000 ftPeak colorpeak Nov 2

What turns: California black oak, blue oak, valley oak, Fremont cottonwood

What turns, and when

California black oak37%
blue oak36%
valley oak18%
Fremont cottonwood9%

Also named across California, outside what the canopy read measures here: Quaking Aspen, Bigleaf Maple, White Alder.

Eastern Sierra aspens turn brilliant gold against granite walls, black oaks in Yosemite Valley go bronze and russet, and cottonwoods line the desert creeks in pale 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 California