When is peak fall color at Boise National Forest?

Our forecast puts peak color at Boise National Forest around 3 Oct. The four days to aim for are 2 to 5 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Boise National Forest Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Boise National Forest?

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 color3 OctAim for 2 to 5 Oct

In the forest today, Sep 25Nearly peak

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 Boise National Forest Elmore County holds most of the forest and is nearly peak today. Boise County, to the south, is on the same day. Valley County, to the north, is 4 days ahead.

By elevation The forest runs from about 3,646 to 8,086 feet. That’s 32 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 14, the low ground holds until about Oct 16, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 5,000 to 6,000 foot band.

8,000–9,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 146%
7,000–8,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2023%
6,000–7,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2625%
5,000–6,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 324%
4,000–5,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 916%
3,000–4,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 167%

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

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

Friday 2 October to Saturday 3 October

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

Up at 7,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 20; down at 5,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 9. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

7,000–8,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 20
6,000–7,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 26
5,000–6,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 3
4,000–5,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 9

Where to drive: Ponderosa Pine Scenic Byway (ID 21), about 11 miles · Sawtooth Scenic Byway (ID 75), about 44 miles
What turns: quaking aspen, Rocky Mountain maple, serviceberry, huckleberry

What turns, and when

quaking aspen52%
Rocky Mountain maple16%
serviceberry16%
huckleberry16%

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

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