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 Yosemite National Park Tuolumne County holds most of the park and is still green today. Mariposa County, to the southwest, is 1 day behind. Mono County, to the east, is 37 days ahead.By elevation The park runs from about 4,739 to 10,720 feet. That’s 39 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 18, the low ground holds until about Oct 27, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 4,000 to 6,000 foot band.
10,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1814%
8,000–10,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 2940%
6,000–8,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1230%
4,000–6,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2715%
SepOctNov
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.
See it now National Park Service, Merced River at Happy Isles webcam, inside the park, captured Sep 25.
The place
You drive through the Wawona Tunnel, come out the other side, and El Capitan, Half Dome, and Bridalveil Fall are all visible at once. Tunnel View has been stopping people in their tracks since 1933. The glacier-carved valley below is seven miles long and a mile wide, with 3,000-foot granite walls on both sides, and it remains the single most recognized piece of geology in the American park system.
Established 1890. About 3.9 million/year visitors.
Set the days you can be here. Everything under them answers for those days, not for peak.
Friday 30 October to Saturday 31 October
You’ll find it leaves down up high, just past peak lower down.
Up at 10,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 18; down at 6,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 27. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
10,000–12,000 ftLeaves downpeak Sep 18
8,000–10,000 ftLeaves downpeak Sep 29
6,000–8,000 ftFadingpeak Oct 12
4,000–6,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 27
Where to drive
June Lake Loop (Route 158), about 25 miles · Sonora Pass (Route 108), about 33 miles · US Route 395 (Eastern Sierra), about 45 miles
What turns
California black oak, Fremont cottonwood, blue oak, white alder, willow
Entrance
$35
What turns, and when
California black oak23%
Fremont cottonwood18%
blue oak17%
white alder12%
willow12%
valley oak9%
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
