When is peak fall color at Golden Gate National Recreation Area?

Our forecast puts peak color at Golden Gate National Recreation Area around 28 Oct. The four days to aim for are 27 to 30 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Golden Gate National Recreation Area Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Golden Gate National Recreation Area?

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 stand28 OctAim for 27 to 30 Oct

In the recreation area today, Sep 25Still green

vine maple and black cottonwood

bigleaf maple, peak Nov 9

Peak color should arrive around 16 Oct for the vine maple and black cottonwood, and around 9 Nov for the bigleaf maple.

Roadsides and wetland edges turn first, and the woods behind them run a few days later.

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 Golden Gate National Recreation Area Marin County holds most of the recreation area and is still green today. San Mateo County, to the southeast, is 1 day behind. San Francisco County, to the east, is 1 day behind.

By elevation The recreation area runs from about 4 to 1,156 feet. That’s 4 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 24, the low ground holds until about Oct 27, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 0 to 250 foot band.

1,000–1,250 ftStill greenpeak Oct 244%
750–1,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2515%
500–750 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2628%
250–500 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2728%
0–250 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2718%

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

The place

Experience a park so rich it supports 19 distinct ecosystems with over 2,000 plant and animal species. Go for a hike, enjoy a vista, have a picnic or learn about the centuries of overlapping history from California’s indigenous cultures, Spanish colonialism, the Mexican Republic, US military expansion and the growth of San Francisco. All of this and more awaits you, so get out and find your park.

Established 1972.

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

Tuesday 27 October to Wednesday 28 October

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

Up at 750 feet the stands peak around Oct 25; down at 250 feet they hold on until about Oct 27. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

750–1,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 25
500–750 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 26
250–500 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 27
0–250 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 27

What turns: bigleaf maple, vine maple, red alder, black cottonwood, Fremont cottonwood

What turns, and when

bigleaf maple30%
vine maple29%
red alder15%
black cottonwood15%
Fremont cottonwood4%
white alder3%

Also named across California, outside what the canopy read measures here: Quaking Aspen, Black Oak.

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