National Forest·California, Nevada·1,956,032 acres
Inyo National Forest
Forecast issued 25 Sep, 5:21pm ET
Peak color9 OctAim for 8 to 11 Oct
In the forest today, Sep 25Starting to turn
Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
3 reports came in from Inyo County this week, 2 of them still green and 1 of them at peak. 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 Inyo National Forest Mono County holds most of the forest and is nearly peak today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 8 days earlier than the forest’s own stands: the forest is starting to turn. Inyo County, to the east, is 14 days behind. Tulare County, to the south, is 24 days behind.By elevation The forest runs from about 5,114 to 11,405 feet. That’s 33 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 20, 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 6,000 to 8,000 foot band.
10,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2011%
8,000–10,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 325%
6,000–8,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1549%
4,000–6,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2713%
SepOctNov
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.
See it now PhenoCam Network, Lower Teakettle camera, 19 km away, captured Sep 25.
That’s 1 day 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.
Thursday 8 October to Friday 9 October
You’ll find it fading up high, starting to turn lower down.
Up at 10,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 20; down at 6,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 27. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
10,000–12,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 20
8,000–10,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 3
6,000–8,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 15
4,000–6,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 27
Where to drive
Bishop Creek Road (Route 168), about 6 miles · US Route 395 (Eastern Sierra), about 27 miles · June Lake Loop (Route 158), about 47 miles
What turns
quaking aspen, narrowleaf cottonwood, Fremont cottonwood, California black oak, willow
What turns, and when
quaking aspen34%
narrowleaf cottonwood15%
Fremont cottonwood10%
California black oak10%
willow8%
white alder6%
Also named across California, outside what the canopy read measures here: Bigleaf Maple.
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
