When is peak fall color at Pinnacles National Park?

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

Pinnacles National Park Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Pinnacles 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 color, most of the stand28 OctAim for 27 to 30 Oct

In the park today, Sep 25Still green

California black oak and Fremont cottonwood

valley oak and bigleaf maple, peak Nov 15

Peak color should arrive around 25 Oct for the California black oak and Fremont cottonwood, and around 15 Nov for the valley oak and 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 Pinnacles National Park San Benito County holds most of the park and is still green today. Monterey County, to the southeast, is 11 days ahead.

By elevation The park runs from about 1,001 to 2,425 feet. That’s 5 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 31, the low ground holds until about Oct 29, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 500 to 1,000 foot band.

2,000–2,500 ftStill greenpeak Oct 3120%
1,500–2,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2641%
1,000–1,500 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2730%
500–1,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 295%

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

Twenty-three million years ago, a volcano erupted 195 miles southeast of here. The San Andreas Fault has been dragging the remains northwest ever since. What you get today are spires and crags jutting out of the California hills like broken teeth, with talus caves wedged between the boulders below. Pinnacles is small, uncrowded, and one of the best places in the country to watch California condors fly.

Established 2013. About 200,000/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

Tuesday 27 October to Wednesday 28 October

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

Up at 2,000 feet the stands peak around Oct 31; down at 1,500 feet they hold on until about Oct 27. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

2,000–2,500 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 31
1,500–2,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 26
1,000–1,500 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 27

Where to drive: June Lake Loop (Route 158), about 145 miles
What turns: California black oak, Fremont cottonwood, blue oak, white alder, willow
Entrance: $30

What turns, and when

California black oak22%
Fremont cottonwood19%
blue oak19%
white alder13%
willow13%
valley oak10%

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

All of California