When is peak fall color at Bear Lake National Wildlife Refuge?

Our forecast puts peak color at Bear Lake National Wildlife Refuge around 7 Oct. The four days to aim for are 6 to 9 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Bear Lake National Wildlife Refuge Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Bear Lake National Wildlife Refuge?

Quaking Aspen, Black Cottonwood, Western Larch, Rocky Mountain Maple, Water Birch. Aspens turn gold on the mountainsides, cottonwoods line the river corridors in yellow, and western larches in the northern panhandle go deep amber before dropping their needles.

Peak color7 OctAim for 6 to 9 Oct

In the refuge today, Sep 25Starting to turn

Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.

Weather Hard frost Tuesday night. Peak may come early and go fast.

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 Bear Lake National Wildlife Refuge Nearly all of the refuge is in Bear Lake County, which is nearly peak today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 9 days earlier than the refuge’s own stands: the refuge is starting to turn.

By elevation The refuge runs from about 5,917 to 5,931 feet. It turns together: there isn’t enough relief here for the color to come down in stages.

5,000–6,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 799%

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

That’s 1 day 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

Tuesday 6 October to Wednesday 7 October

You’ll find it peak color.

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

Where to drive: Logan Canyon (US 89), about 25 miles · Mirror Lake Highway (UT 150), about 102 miles · Guardsman Pass, about 108 miles
What turns: narrowleaf cottonwood, quaking aspen, willow, water birch, thinleaf alder

What turns, and when

narrowleaf cottonwood33%
quaking aspen22%
willow22%
water birch11%
thinleaf alder11%

Every one of these turns yellow or gold here. The shades only tell the species apart.

Also named across Idaho, outside what the canopy read measures here: Black Cottonwood, Western Larch, Rocky Mountain Maple.

Aspens turn gold on the mountainsides, cottonwoods line the river corridors in yellow, and western larches in the northern panhandle go deep amber before dropping their needles.

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 Idaho