When is peak fall color at Sawtooth Wilderness?

Our forecast puts peak color at Sawtooth Wilderness around 27 Sep. The four days to aim for are 26 to 29 Sep. We publish our error rate.

Sawtooth Wilderness Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Sawtooth Wilderness?

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 color27 SepAim for 26 to 29 Sep

In the wilderness today, Sep 25Nearly peak

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 Wilderness Custer County holds most of the wilderness and is peak color today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 3 days earlier than the wilderness’s own stands: the wilderness is nearly peak. Boise County, to the west, is 6 days behind. Elmore County, to the southwest, is 6 days behind.

By elevation The wilderness runs from about 6,025 to 9,294 feet. That’s 25 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 8, the low ground holds until about Oct 3, 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 812%
8,000–9,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1335%
7,000–8,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2029%
6,000–7,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2620%
5,000–6,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 35%

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

Saturday 26 September to Sunday 27 September

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

Up at 9,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 8; 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 8
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: Ponderosa Pine Scenic Byway (ID 21), about 16 miles · Sawtooth Scenic Byway (ID 75), about 17 miles
What turns: quaking aspen, Rocky Mountain maple, serviceberry, huckleberry

What turns, and when

quaking aspen51%
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