Peak color, most of the stand15 OctAim for 14 to 17 Oct
In the forest today, Sep 25Starting to turn
California black oak and blue oak
Oregon white oak and bigleaf maple, peak Nov 1
Peak color should arrive around 11 Oct for the California black oak and blue oak, and around 1 Nov for the Oregon white oak and bigleaf maple.
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 Six Rivers National Forest Trinity County holds most of the forest and is still green today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 14 days later than the forest’s own stands: the forest is starting to turn. Humboldt County, to the southwest, is 14 days ahead. Del Norte County, to the north, is 11 days ahead.By elevation The forest runs from about 1,178 to 4,514 feet. That’s 2 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 19, the low ground holds until about Oct 15, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 1,000 to 2,000 foot band.
4,000–5,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 1912%
3,000–4,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2628%
2,000–3,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2434%
1,000–2,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1523%
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.
Set the days you can be here. Everything under them answers for those days, not for peak.
Wednesday 14 October to Thursday 15 October
You’ll find it nearly peak up high, peak color lower down.
Up at 4,000 feet the stands peak around Oct 19; down at 2,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 15. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
4,000–5,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 19
3,000–4,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 26
2,000–3,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 24
1,000–2,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 15
What turns
California black oak, blue oak, valley oak, Fremont cottonwood, Oregon white oak
What turns, and when
California black oak26%
blue oak23%
valley oak11%
Fremont cottonwood11%
Oregon white oak8%
white alder8%
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
