Peak color lands around Oct 29 in most of Maryland, but it moves 17 days across the state. Here’s where, and when, and how sure we are.
Maryland’s season, place by place
Every place we forecast in Maryland, each set on the calendar at its peak and painted by how far along it is today, Sep 25.
First: Catoctin Mountain Park, Oct 20. Last: Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, Nov 4.
The dashed rule is today; the solid one is the median of the places on this chart, Oct 29. The date at the top of the page is the median county, which includes the low ground between them.
The county map today
Where to go in Maryland
The destinations we cover in Maryland, in the order their color arrives. Each carries its own forecast and its own band, because a state isn’t one place.
- Too earlyPeak 20 Oct, oak 23 Oct best 19 to 22 Oct
- Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical ParkToo earlyPeak 25 Oct, oak 29 Oct best 24 to 27 Oct
- Harpers Ferry National Historical ParkToo earlyPeak 25 Oct, oak 28 Oct best 24 to 27 Oct
- Antietam National BattlefieldToo earlyPeak 25 Oct best 24 to 27 Oct
- Monocacy National BattlefieldToo earlyPeak 25 Oct, oak 29 Oct best 24 to 27 Oct
- Too earlyPeak 26 Oct best 25 to 28 Oct
- Patuxent Research RefugeToo earlyPeak 27 Oct best 26 to 29 Oct
- Too earlyPeak 28 Oct best 27 to 30 Oct
- Lower Potomac River230Too earlyPeak 28 Oct best 27 to 30 Oct
- Eastern Neck National Wildlife RefugeToo earlyPeak 29 Oct best 28 to 31 Oct
- Blackwater National Wildlife RefugeToo earlyPeak 30 Oct best 29 Oct to 1 Nov
- Too earlyPeak 30 Oct best 29 Oct to 1 Nov
- Thomas Stone National Historic SiteToo earlyPeak 31 Oct best 30 Oct to 2 Nov
- Too earlyPeak 1 Nov best 31 Oct to 3 Nov
- Too earlyPeak 1 Nov best 31 Oct to 3 Nov
- Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical ParkToo earlyPeak 2 Nov best 1 to 4 Nov
- Too earlyPeak 3 Nov best 2 to 5 Nov
- Martin National Wildlife RefugeToo earlyPeak 3 Nov best 2 to 5 Nov
- Chincoteague National Wildlife RefugeToo earlyPeak 4 Nov best 3 to 6 Nov
When to go
Across 24 counties, peak color is forecast to arrive first in Garrett County around Oct 16 and last in Somerset County around Nov 2. Most of the state peaks near Oct 29.
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 7 long-running forest monitoring sites in this part of the country and publish what it got wrong.
This autumn is running 4 days late in Maryland. 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.
Mid-October in western Maryland, late October to early November in the Piedmont and Eastern Shore is how Maryland is usually described.
What actually turns
Western Maryland's Allegheny ridges turn gold and russet with oaks and hickories while sweetgums in the Piedmont produce vivid purple and red.
- Red Maple
- Tulip Poplar
- White Oak
- Hickory
- Sweetgum
Savage River State Forest in Garrett County is the wildest fall landscape in Maryland, with hardwood-covered ridges stretching to the horizon.
Every county, by peak week
The ocean does a lot of the work here. The coast itself turns 4 days after the woods inland at the same latitude, and the counties along it run a few days behind, because water that soaked up a summer of heat gives it back all fall and holds the first hard frosts off.
Allegany, Garrett
Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick, Harford, Howard, Montgomery, Washington
Anne Arundel, Baltimore city, Calvert, Caroline, Cecil, Charles, Dorchester, Kent, Prince George's, Queen Anne's, Somerset, St. Mary's, Talbot, Wicomico, Worcester
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