When is peak fall color at Ocala National Forest?

Our forecast puts peak color at Ocala National Forest around 20 Nov. The four days to aim for are 19 to 22 Nov. We publish our error rate.

Ocala National Forest Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Ocala National Forest?

Sweetgum, Red Maple, Bald Cypress, Hickory, Dogwood. Bald cypresses turn russet and copper along the rivers, sweetgums provide scattered red and purple, and the maples in the Panhandle produce pockets of real color.

Peak color, most of the stand20 NovAim for 19 to 22 Nov

In the forest today, Sep 25Still green

bald cypress and water oak

sweetgum, peak Nov 28

Peak color should arrive around 19 Nov for the bald cypress and water oak, and around 28 Nov for the sweetgum.

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 forecast

Around Ocala National Forest Marion County holds most of the forest and is still green today. Lake County, to the south, is 1 day behind.

Today from the NEON.D03.BARC.DP1.20002 camera, 59 km from Ocala National Forest — See it now PhenoCam Network, Barco Lake camera, 59 km away, captured Sep 25.

That’s 2 days later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, which shifts peak color.

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

Thursday 19 November to Friday 20 November

You’ll find it peak color.

That's the day our forecast puts peak color here.

What turns: bald cypress, water oak, blackgum, willow oak, river birch

What turns, and when

bald cypress18%
water oak15%
blackgum14%
willow oak13%
river birch13%
sweetgum13%

Also named across Florida, outside what the canopy read measures here: Red Maple, Hickory, Dogwood.

Bald cypresses turn russet and copper along the rivers, sweetgums provide scattered red and purple, and the maples in the Panhandle produce pockets of real color.

Across Florida as a whole: Late November through December in the Panhandle, spotty elsewhere.

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. We score it here against 7 long-running forest cameras: two dates in three land within 13 days of the camera’s own peak. How this map is made

All of Florida