When is peak fall color at Payette National Forest?

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

Payette National Forest Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Payette 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 color7 OctAim for 6 to 9 Oct

In the forest today, Sep 25Starting to turn

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 Payette National Forest Adams County holds most of the forest and is starting to turn today. Valley County, to the southeast, is 11 days ahead. Idaho County, to the north, is 9 days ahead.

By elevation The forest runs from about 3,363 to 7,811 feet. That’s 32 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 17, the low ground holds until about Oct 13, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 4,000 to 5,000 foot band.

7,000–8,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1723%
6,000–7,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2328%
5,000–6,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 3021%
4,000–5,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 614%
3,000–4,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 138%

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

Tuesday 6 October to Wednesday 7 October

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

Up at 7,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 17; down at 4,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 13. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

7,000–8,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 17
6,000–7,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 23
5,000–6,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 30
4,000–5,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 6
3,000–4,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 13

Where to drive: Ponderosa Pine Scenic Byway (ID 21), about 72 miles · Sawtooth Scenic Byway (ID 75), about 97 miles · Skalkaho Pass (MT 38), about 120 miles
What turns: quaking aspen, serviceberry, Rocky Mountain maple, huckleberry

What turns, and when

quaking aspen53%
serviceberry16%
Rocky Mountain maple16%
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