When is peak fall color at Owens River Headwaters Wilderness?

Our forecast puts peak color at Owens River Headwaters Wilderness around 6 Oct. The four days to aim for are 5 to 8 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Owens River Headwaters Wilderness Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Owens River Headwaters Wilderness?

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 color6 OctAim for 5 to 8 Oct

In the wilderness today, Sep 25Starting to turn

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

Weather Wind to 35 mph Friday. Color may come down before it turns.

6 reports came in from Mono County this week, 4 of them patchy color and 2 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 Owens River Headwaters Wilderness Nearly all of the wilderness is in Mono County, which is nearly peak today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 5 days earlier than the wilderness’s own stands: the wilderness is starting to turn. Madera County, to the southwest, is 24 days behind.

By elevation The wilderness runs from about 8,122 to 10,327 feet. That’s 20 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 22, the low ground holds until about Oct 4, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 8,000 to 8,500 foot band.

10,000–10,500 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 225%
9,500–10,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2517%
9,000–9,500 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 2826%
8,500–9,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 129%
8,000–8,500 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 417%

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

The latest daylight frame from the nevconness1 camera, 22 km from Owens River Headwaters Wilderness — Latest daylight frame PhenoCam Network, Whitebark krummholz camera, 22 km away, captured Sep 23.

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

Monday 5 October to Tuesday 6 October

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

Up at 9,500 feet the stands peak around Sep 25; down at 8,500 feet they hold on until about Oct 4. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

9,500–10,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 25
9,000–9,500 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 28
8,500–9,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 1
8,000–8,500 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 4

Where to drive: June Lake Loop (Route 158), about 5 miles · US Route 395 (Eastern Sierra), about 16 miles · Bishop Creek Road (Route 168), about 43 miles
What turns: quaking aspen, Fremont cottonwood, white alder, willow, bigleaf maple

What turns, and when

quaking aspen66%
Fremont cottonwood11%
white alder7%
willow7%
bigleaf maple4%
California black oak4%

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

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