Roadsides and wetland edges turn first, and the woods behind them run a few days later.
No new reports from the ground here this week.
- 1,250–1,500 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 106%
- 1,000–1,250 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1025%
- 750–1,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1151%
- 500–750 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1218%
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.
That’s 2 days later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, which shifts peak color.
Plan this tripIf you can only come on certain days
Set the days you can be here. Everything under them answers for those days, not for peak.
Saturday 10 October to Sunday 11 October
You’ll find it peak color.
That's the day our forecast puts peak color here.
- 1,000–1,250 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 10
- 750–1,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 11
- 500–750 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 12
- Where to drive
- Tunnel of Trees (M-119), about 91 miles
- What turns
- red maple, white oak, northern red oak, sugar maple, paper birch
What turns, and when
- red maple18%
- white oak15%
- northern red oak15%
- sugar maple15%
- paper birch13%
- quaking aspen9%
Michigan produces some of the most vivid sugar maple color in America, with the Upper Peninsula's maples turning neon orange and scarlet against birch gold and the dark green of hemlocks.
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. We score it here against 13 long-running forest cameras: two dates in three land within 9 days of the camera’s own peak. How this map is made