Peak color, most of the stand29 OctAim for 28 to 31 Oct
In the forest today, Sep 25Still green
Fremont cottonwood and white alder
valley oak, peak Nov 15
Peak color should arrive around 28 Oct for the Fremont cottonwood and white alder, and around 15 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 Santa Barbara County this week, 4 of them still green. 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 Los Padres National Forest San Luis Obispo County holds most of the forest and is still green today. Santa Barbara County, to the south, is 1 day behind. Ventura County, to the southeast, is 2 days ahead.By elevation The forest runs from about 264 to 5,310 feet. That’s 14 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 19, 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 1,000 to 2,000 foot band.
5,000–6,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 198%
4,000–5,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 229%
3,000–4,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2514%
2,000–3,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2822%
1,000–2,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 3026%
0–1,000 ftStill greenpeak Nov 220%
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, Lake Fire scrub recovery camera, 37 km away, captured Sep 25.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.
Wednesday 28 October to Thursday 29 October
You’ll find it just past peak up high, nearly peak lower down.
Up at 4,000 feet the stands peak around Oct 22; down at 1,000 feet they hold on until about Nov 2. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
4,000–5,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 22
3,000–4,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 25
2,000–3,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 28
1,000–2,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 30
0–1,000 ftNearly peakpeak Nov 2
What turns
Fremont cottonwood, white alder, willow, California black oak, blue oak
What turns, and when
Fremont cottonwood27%
white alder18%
willow18%
California black oak15%
blue oak15%
valley oak8%
Also named across California, outside what the canopy read measures here: Quaking Aspen, 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
