When is peak fall color at Lassen Volcanic National Park?

Our forecast puts peak color at Lassen Volcanic National Park around 12 Oct. The four days to aim for are 11 to 14 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Lassen Volcanic National Park Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Lassen Volcanic National Park?

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 color12 OctAim for 11 to 14 Oct

In the park today, Sep 25Starting to turn

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 Lassen Volcanic National Park Shasta County holds most of the park and is still green today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 8 days later than the park’s own stands: the park is starting to turn. Plumas County, to the southeast, is 1 day ahead. Lassen County, to the east, is 5 days ahead.

By elevation The park runs from about 5,692 to 8,000 feet. That’s 18 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 25, the low ground holds until about Oct 13, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 5,000 to 6,000 foot band.

8,000–9,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 255%
7,000–8,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 224%
6,000–7,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 759%
5,000–6,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1313%

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

The place

Lassen Peak blew in 1915 and Congress made it a national park the following year while the ground was still warm. It remains the southern anchor of the Cascade Range and one of the most likely volcanoes in the chain to erupt again. The park holds all four types of volcanoes found on earth, plug dome, shield, cinder cone, and composite, plus bubbling mud pots and fumaroles that smell like the whole place is still making up its mind.

Established 1916. About 420,000/year visitors.

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

Sunday 11 October to Monday 12 October

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

Up at 7,000 feet the stands peak around Oct 2; down at 6,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 13. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

7,000–8,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 2
6,000–7,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 7
5,000–6,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 13

What turns: black cottonwood, willow, bigleaf maple, red alder, red-osier dogwood
Entrance: $30

What turns, and when

black cottonwood30%
willow20%
bigleaf maple20%
red alder20%
red-osier dogwood10%

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

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