When is peak fall color at Mark Trail Wilderness?

Our forecast puts peak color at Mark Trail Wilderness around 27 Oct. The four days to aim for are 26 to 29 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Mark Trail Wilderness Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Mark Trail Wilderness?

Red Maple, Hickory, Sweetgum, Tulip Poplar, White Oak. The Blue Ridge mountains of north Georgia produce warm golds and russets from hickories and oaks, with red maples and sweetgums providing the scarlet and purple accents.

Peak color27 OctAim for 26 to 29 Oct

In the wilderness today, Sep 25Still green

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 Mark Trail Wilderness White County holds most of the wilderness and is still green today. Union County, to the west, is 4 days ahead. Towns County, to the north, is 5 days ahead.

By elevation The wilderness runs from about 1,819 to 3,601 feet. That’s 8 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 24, the low ground holds until about Nov 1, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 2,500 to 3,000 foot band.

3,500–4,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 248%
3,000–3,500 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2630%
2,500–3,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2839%
2,000–2,500 ftStill greenpeak Oct 3015%
1,500–2,000 ftStill greenpeak Nov 18%

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

Today from the coweeta camera, 14 km from Mark Trail Wilderness — See it now PhenoCam Network, Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory camera, 14 km away, captured Sep 25.

That’s 4 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

Monday 26 October to Tuesday 27 October

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

Up at 3,000 feet the stands peak around Oct 26; down at 2,000 feet they hold on until about Nov 1. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

3,000–3,500 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 26
2,500–3,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 28
2,000–2,500 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 30
1,500–2,000 ftNearly peakpeak Nov 1

Where to drive: Cherohala Skyway, about 39 miles · Newfound Gap Road, about 61 miles · Blue Ridge Parkway (NC Section), about 115 miles
What turns: northern red oak, white oak, red maple, shagbark hickory, sugar maple

What turns, and when

northern red oak30%
white oak26%
red maple20%
shagbark hickory15%
sugar maple4%
tulip poplar2%

Also named across Georgia, outside what the canopy read measures here: Sweetgum.

The Blue Ridge mountains of north Georgia produce warm golds and russets from hickories and oaks, with red maples and sweetgums providing the scarlet and purple accents.

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 16 long-running forest cameras: two dates in three land within 7 days of the camera’s own peak. How this map is made

All of Georgia