When is peak fall color at Sequoia National Park?

Our forecast puts peak color at Sequoia National Park around 1 Oct. The four days to aim for are 30 Sep to 3 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Sequoia National Park Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Sequoia 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 color1 OctAim for 30 Sep to 3 Oct

In the park today, Sep 25Nearly peak

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 Sequoia National Park Nearly all of the park is in Tulare County, which is still green today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 24 days later than the park’s own stands: the park is nearly peak. Inyo County, to the east, is 10 days ahead.

By elevation The park runs from about 4,099 to 12,272 feet. That’s 38 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 25, 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 8,000 to 10,000 foot band.

12,000–14,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 257%
10,000–12,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2532%
8,000–10,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 428%
6,000–8,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1417%
4,000–6,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2310%
2,000–4,000 ftStill greenpeak Nov 25%

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

The General Sherman Tree contains 52,500 cubic feet of wood. It is the largest living thing on earth by volume, and no photograph has ever come close to communicating the actual size of it. Sequoia was the second national park ever established, in 1890, and walking through these groves you understand why. The trees are so big they created their own weather.

Established 1890. About 1.2 million/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

Wednesday 30 September to Thursday 1 October

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

Up at 10,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 25; down at 6,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 23. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

10,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 25
8,000–10,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 4
6,000–8,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 14
4,000–6,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 23

Where to drive: Bishop Creek Road (Route 168), about 51 miles · US Route 395 (Eastern Sierra), about 76 miles · June Lake Loop (Route 158), about 93 miles
What turns: California black oak, blue oak, valley oak, Fremont cottonwood, white alder
Entrance: $35

What turns, and when

California black oak31%
blue oak28%
valley oak14%
Fremont cottonwood10%
white alder7%
willow7%

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