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Forecast issued 25 Sep, 3:53pm ET

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Illinois Fall Foliage Map 2026

Forecast issued 25 Sep, 3:53pm ET

Peak color lands around Oct 26 in most of Illinois, but it moves 17 days across the state. Here’s where, and when, and how sure we are.

Illinois’s season, place by place

Every place we forecast in Illinois, each set on the calendar at its peak and painted by how far along it is today, Sep 25.

First: Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, Oct 15. Last: Cypress Creek National Wildlife Refuge, Nov 3.

The dashed rule is today; the solid one is the median of the places on this chart, Nov 2. The date at the top of the page is the median county, which includes the low ground between them.

The county map today

HackmatackChautauquaEmiquonMeredosiaGreat RiverClarence CannonTwo RiversMiddle Mississippi RiverPanther Den Wilderness
Illinois, Sep 25 Still green to peak to past peak, the map’s own scale. Open the live map to scrub the day.

Where to go in Illinois

The destinations we cover in Illinois, in the order their color arrives. Each carries its own forecast and its own band, because a state isn’t one place.

  1. Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish RefugeIowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin
    Too earlyPeak 15 Oct best 14 to 17 Oct
  2. Hackmatack National Wildlife RefugeIllinois
    Too earlyPeak 16 Oct, oak 20 Oct best 15 to 18 Oct
  3. Chautauqua National Wildlife RefugeIllinois
    Too earlyPeak 24 Oct best 23 to 26 Oct
  4. Emiquon National Wildlife RefugeIllinois
    Too earlyPeak 25 Oct best 24 to 27 Oct
  5. Meredosia National Wildlife RefugeIllinois
    Too earlyPeak 26 Oct best 25 to 28 Oct
  6. Great River National Wildlife RefugeIllinois, Missouri
    Too earlyPeak 27 Oct best 26 to 29 Oct
  7. Clarence Cannon National Wildlife RefugeIllinois, Missouri
    Too earlyPeak 28 Oct best 27 to 30 Oct
  8. Two Rivers National Wildlife RefugeIllinois
    Too earlyPeak 29 Oct best 28 to 31 Oct
  9. Middle Mississippi River National Wildlife RefugeIllinois, Missouri
    Too earlyPeak 1 Nov best 31 Oct to 3 Nov
  10. Panther Den WildernessIllinois
    Too earlyPeak 1 Nov best 31 Oct to 3 Nov
  11. Shawnee National ForestIllinois
    Too earlyPeak 2 Nov best 1 to 4 Nov
  12. Crab Orchard National Wildlife RefugeIllinois
    Too earlyPeak 2 Nov best 1 to 4 Nov
  13. Lusk Creek WildernessIllinois
    Too earlyPeak 2 Nov best 1 to 4 Nov
  14. Bald Knob WildernessIllinois
    Too earlyPeak 2 Nov best 1 to 4 Nov
  15. Clear Springs WildernessIllinois
    Too earlyPeak 2 Nov best 1 to 4 Nov
  16. Crab Orchard WildernessIllinois
    Too earlyPeak 2 Nov best 1 to 4 Nov
  17. Garden of the Gods WildernessIllinois
    Too earlyPeak 2 Nov best 1 to 4 Nov
  18. Burden Falls WildernessIllinois
    Too earlyPeak 2 Nov best 1 to 4 Nov
  19. Bay Creek WildernessIllinois
    Too earlyPeak 2 Nov best 1 to 4 Nov
  20. La Rue-Pine Hills Scenic AreaIllinois
    Too earlyPeak 2 Nov best 1 to 4 Nov
  21. Cypress Creek National Wildlife RefugeIllinois
    Too earlyPeak 3 Nov best 2 to 5 Nov

When to go

Across 102 counties, peak color is forecast to arrive first in McHenry County around Oct 17 and last in Alexander County around Nov 3. Most of the state peaks near Oct 26.

Each date is the middle of the four days we’d aim a trip at, and each place page names them. We score the model against 13 long-running forest monitoring sites in this part of the country and publish what it got wrong.

This autumn is running 6 days late in Illinois. September has run warmer than the 1991 to 2020 normal so far, and the dates above already include that. It’s a real signal but a modest one: temperature explains under a tenth of how much peak color moves year to year.

Early-to-mid October in the north, late October in the Shawnee is how Illinois is usually described.

What actually turns

The Shawnee Hills of southern Illinois produce surprisingly intense color, with sugar maples blazing orange above sandstone bluffs and oaks turning deep burgundy across the ridges.

  • Sugar Maple
  • Red Oak
  • White Oak
  • Hickory
  • Sweetgum

Starved Rock State Park along the Illinois River is the most popular fall destination, but the Garden of the Gods area in the Shawnee National Forest is more spectacular.

Every county, by peak week

Latitude does most of the work here: color moves south at about two days per degree, so the north of the state turns a week or more ahead of the south.

Oct 17 to Oct 20

Boone, Carroll, Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Jo Daviess, Kane, Kendall, Lake, Lee, McHenry, Ogle, Stephenson, Will, Winnebago

Oct 21 to Oct 27

Adams, Brown, Bureau, Cass, Champaign, Christian, Clark, Coles, De Witt, Douglas, Edgar, Ford, Fulton, Greene, Grundy, Hancock, Henderson, Henry, Iroquois, Kankakee, Knox, LaSalle, Livingston, Logan, Macon, Macoupin, Marshall, Mason, McDonough, McLean, Menard, Mercer, Montgomery, Morgan, Moultrie, Peoria, Piatt, Pike, Putnam, Rock Island, Sangamon, Schuyler, Scott, Shelby, Stark, Tazewell, Vermilion, Warren, Whiteside, Woodford

Oct 28 to Nov 3

Alexander, Bond, Calhoun, Clay, Clinton, Crawford, Cumberland, Edwards, Effingham, Fayette, Franklin, Gallatin, Hamilton, Hardin, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Jersey, Johnson, Lawrence, Madison, Marion, Massac, Monroe, Perry, Pope, Pulaski, Randolph, Richland, Saline, St. Clair, Union, Wabash, Washington, Wayne, White, Williamson

How this map is madeThe trees, the elevation, this September’s weather and reports from the ground, scored against 68 forest cameras. Median error 6 days.

Every date on this site is a forecast: a model corrected by ground reports, carrying a measured error, published in full. Check conditions with the land manager before you travel. Last reviewed September 2026. Open the live map