Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
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 Ottawa National Forest Gogebic County holds most of the forest and is starting to turn today. Ontonagon County, to the northwest, is 1 day behind. Iron County, to the southeast, is on the same day.By elevation The forest runs from about 702 to 1,734 feet. That’s 3 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 3, the low ground holds until about Oct 6, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 1,250 to 1,500 foot band.
1,500–1,750 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 345%
1,250–1,500 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 416%
1,000–1,250 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 520%
750–1,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 510%
500–750 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 66%
SepOctNov
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.
See it now PhenoCam Network, UNDERC camera, 39 km away, captured Sep 25.
That’s 2 days later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, which shifts peak color.
Set the days you can be here. Everything under them answers for those days, not for peak.
Saturday 3 October to Sunday 4 October
You’ll find it peak color.
That's the day our forecast puts peak color here.
1,500–1,750 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 3
1,250–1,500 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 4
1,000–1,250 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 5
750–1,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 5
Where to drive
Route 41 through Copper Country, about 77 miles · Brockway Mountain Drive, about 90 miles · Gunflint Trail (County Road 12), about 117 miles
What turns
sugar maple, red maple, paper birch, quaking aspen, yellow birch
What turns, and when
sugar maple27%
red maple20%
paper birch19%
quaking aspen11%
yellow birch9%
American beech9%
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.
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
