Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
Weather Hard frost Saturday 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 Sawtooth National Recreation Area Custer County holds most of the recreation area and is peak color today. Blaine County, to the southeast, is 5 days behind. Boise County, to the west, is 6 days behind.By elevation The recreation area runs from about 6,410 to 9,544 feet. That’s 19 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 7, the low ground holds until about Sep 26, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 6,000 to 7,000 foot band.
9,000–10,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 715%
8,000–9,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1331%
7,000–8,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2034%
6,000–7,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2621%
SepOctNov
Height off 3DEP inside the recreation area’s own boundary; each band carries the date our model gives that elevation, corrections and all. The percentage is how much of the recreation area stands in it.
Set the days you can be here. Everything under them answers for those days, not for peak.
Friday 25 September to Saturday 26 September
You’ll find it fading up high, peak color lower down.
Up at 9,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 7; down at 7,000 feet they hold on until about Sep 26. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
9,000–10,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 7
8,000–9,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 13
7,000–8,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 20
6,000–7,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 26
Where to drive
Sawtooth Scenic Byway (ID 75), about 11 miles · Ponderosa Pine Scenic Byway (ID 21), about 27 miles
What turns
quaking aspen, narrowleaf cottonwood, willow, serviceberry, Rocky Mountain maple
What turns, and when
quaking aspen33%
narrowleaf cottonwood22%
willow15%
serviceberry10%
Rocky Mountain maple10%
huckleberry10%
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
