National Park·Michigan·512,060 acres
Isle Royale National Park
Forecast issued Nov 10, 7:57am ET
Photograph: More Than Just Parks
Roadsides and wetland edges turn first, and the woods behind them run a few days later.
Weather Hard frost Wednesday night. Peak may come early and go fast.
No new reports from the ground here this week.
When is peak fall foliage at Isle Royale National Park in 2026?
Our forecast puts peak color at Isle Royale National Park around Oct 9, and the four days to aim for are Oct 8 to 11.
That's 3 days later than our model alone would say, because this September has been running warm.
| Week | In the park |
|---|---|
| Sep 21 to Sep 27 | Starting to turn |
| Sep 28 to Oct 4 | Nearly peak |
| Oct 5 to Oct 11 | Peak color |
| Oct 12 to Oct 18 | Just past peak |
| Oct 19 to Oct 25 | Just past peak |
- 0–1,000 ftLeaves downpeak Oct 999%
Height off 3DEP inside the park’s own boundary; each band carries the date our model gives that elevation, corrections and all. The percentage is how much of the park stands in it.
That’s 3 days later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, which shifts peak color.
The place
Isle Royale sits 56 miles off the Michigan coast in Lake Superior, reachable only by boat or floatplane. That isolation makes it the least visited national park in the Lower 48 and the most revisited, with 40% of visitors coming back. Wolves and moose have been studied here since 1958 in the longest predator-prey research project on earth.
Established 1940. About 28,800/year visitors.
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.
Thursday, October 8 to Friday, October 9
You’ll find it peak color.
That's the day our forecast puts peak color here.
- Where to drive
- Route 41 through Copper Country, about 54 miles · Brockway Mountain Drive, about 56 miles · Gunflint Trail (County Road 12), about 67 miles
- What turns
- paper birch, sugar maple, red maple, quaking aspen, water oak
- Entrance
- $7/day
What turns, and when
- paper birch19%
- sugar maple17%
- red maple17%
- quaking aspen15%
- water oak8%
- sweetgum8%
Also named across Michigan, outside what the canopy read measures here: Red Oak.
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.
Questions people ask about Isle Royale National Park
- When is peak fall foliage at Isle Royale National Park?
Our forecast puts peak color at Isle Royale National Park around Oct 9, and the four days to aim for are Oct 8 to 11.
- Where is the best fall color at Isle Royale National Park right now?
On Nov 10 the park is leaves down.
- How long does peak last at Isle Royale National Park?
About four days at the top, Oct 8 to 11, with a week or so either side that's still worth the drive.
- Is Isle Royale National Park past peak?
Yes. Peak was around Oct 9, and on Nov 10 it's leaves down.
- What trees turn color at Isle Royale National Park?
Sugar Maple, Red Maple, Quaking Aspen, Paper Birch, Red Oak. 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.
- Is there an entrance fee at Isle Royale National Park?
Entrance fee $7/day.
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
Nearby, and when they turn
- Peak Oct 5 best Oct 4 to 7
- Peak Oct 13 best Oct 12 to 15
- Peak Oct 1 best Sep 30 to Oct 3
- Peak Oct 13 best Oct 12 to 15
- Peak Oct 11 best Oct 10 to 13
- Peak Oct 6 best Oct 5 to 8
Fall color roads near Isle Royale National Park
Nearest first. Distances are straight-line from the park, so allow more by road.
- Route 41 through Copper Country
Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula, surrounded by Lake Superior. The lake holds the color back, so the peninsula peaks a week or so after the inland Upper Peninsula, usually around the second week of October.
- Brockway Mountain Drive
The highest above-sea-level road between the Rockies and the Alleghenies. Views of the Keweenaw's color canopy stretching to the lake horizon.
- Gunflint Trail (County Road 12)
Runs from Grand Marais to the Boundary Waters. The mix of birch, aspen, and spruce along Superior's ridgeline is world-class.