When is peak fall color at Smith River National Recreation Area?

Our forecast puts peak color at Smith River National Recreation Area around 14 Oct. The four days to aim for are 13 to 16 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Smith River National Recreation Area Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Smith River National Recreation Area?

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 stand14 OctAim for 13 to 16 Oct

In the recreation area today, Sep 25Starting to turn

Fremont cottonwood and white alder

Oregon white oak and bigleaf maple, peak Oct 29

Peak color should arrive around 8 Oct for the Fremont cottonwood and white alder, and around 29 Oct for the Oregon white 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 Smith River National Recreation Area Nearly all of the recreation area is in Del Norte County, which is still green today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 4 days later than the recreation area’s own stands: the recreation area is starting to turn. Siskiyou County, to the east, is 6 days behind.

By elevation The recreation area runs from about 945 to 4,552 feet. It turns together: there isn’t enough relief here for the color to come down in stages.

4,000–5,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 1711%
3,000–4,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2420%
2,000–3,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2235%
1,000–2,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1329%
0–1,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 166%

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

Today from the delnortecounty1 camera, 30 km from Smith River National Recreation Area — See it now PhenoCam Network, Del Norte County Site 1 camera, 30 km away, captured Sep 25.

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 13 October to Wednesday 14 October

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

Up at 4,000 feet the stands peak around Oct 17; down at 2,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 13. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

4,000–5,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 17
3,000–4,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 24
2,000–3,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 22
1,000–2,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 13

What turns: Fremont cottonwood, white alder, willow, Oregon white oak, bigleaf maple

What turns, and when

Fremont cottonwood22%
white alder15%
willow15%
Oregon white oak14%
bigleaf maple13%
California black oak13%

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.

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