We don’t forecast fall color here. Chaparral. No fall display. Our model reads latitude and elevation and will happily produce a date for anywhere; publishing one here would be a category error rather than an uncertain forecast, so we don’t.
That’s 1 day later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, which shifts peak color.
The place
The Santa Monica Mountains offer easy access to surprisingly wild places. Experience the famous beaches of Malibu or explore more than 500 miles of trails. The park abounds with historical and cultural sites, from old movie ranches to Native American centers. What will you and your family discover?
Established 1978.
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.
Thursday 5 November to Friday 6 November
You’ll find it peak color.
That's the day our forecast puts peak color here.
- What turns
- Fremont cottonwood, white alder, willow, California black oak, bigleaf maple
What turns, and when
- Fremont cottonwood33%
- white alder22%
- willow22%
- California black oak13%
- bigleaf maple11%
Also named across California, outside what the canopy read measures here: Quaking Aspen.
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.
Across California as a whole: Late September to mid-October in the Sierra, late October to mid-November in Yosemite Valley.
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