When is peak fall color at Salmon-Challis National Forest?

Our forecast puts peak color at Salmon-Challis National Forest around 19 Sep. The four days to aim for are 18 to 21 Sep. We publish our error rate.

Salmon-Challis National Forest Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Salmon-Challis 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 color19 SepAim for 18 to 21 Sep

In the forest today, Sep 25Just past peak

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

Weather Wind to 37 mph Friday. Color may come down before it turns.

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 Salmon-Challis National Forest Lemhi County holds most of the forest and is peak color today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 7 days later than the forest’s own stands: the forest is just past peak. Custer County, to the south, is 2 days ahead. Butte County, to the southeast, is on the same day.

By elevation The forest runs from about 4,818 to 9,118 feet. That’s 32 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 5, the low ground holds until about Oct 7, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 7,000 to 8,000 foot band.

9,000–10,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 56%
8,000–9,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 1217%
7,000–8,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1828%
6,000–7,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2426%
5,000–6,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 115%
4,000–5,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 77%

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 18 September to Saturday 19 September

You’ll find it just past peak up high, starting to turn lower down.

Up at 8,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 12; down at 6,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 1. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

8,000–9,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 12
7,000–8,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 18
6,000–7,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 24
5,000–6,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1

Where to drive: Sawtooth Scenic Byway (ID 75), about 57 miles · Ponderosa Pine Scenic Byway (ID 21), about 67 miles · Skalkaho Pass (MT 38), about 109 miles
What turns: quaking aspen, serviceberry, Rocky Mountain maple, huckleberry

What turns, and when

quaking aspen51%
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