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 Superior National Forest St. Louis County holds most of the forest and is peak color today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 6 days earlier than the forest’s own stands: the forest is nearly peak. Lake County, to the south, is 6 days behind. Cook County, to the east, is 8 days behind.By elevation The forest runs from about 1,006 to 1,896 feet. That’s 4 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 29, the low ground holds until about Oct 3, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 1,250 to 1,500 foot band.
1,750–2,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 2917%
1,500–1,750 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 3036%
1,250–1,500 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 3032%
1,000–1,250 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 110%
500–750 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 34%
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.
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.
Tuesday 29 September to Wednesday 30 September
You’ll find it peak color.
That's the day our forecast puts peak color here.
1,750–2,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 29
1,500–1,750 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 30
1,250–1,500 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 30
1,000–1,250 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 1
Where to drive
Gunflint Trail (County Road 12), about 53 miles
What turns
paper birch, quaking aspen, sugar maple, red maple, water oak
What turns, and when
paper birch27%
quaking aspen24%
sugar maple20%
red maple12%
water oak4%
sweetgum4%
Also named across Minnesota, outside what the canopy read measures here: Tamarack.
The Boundary Waters and North Shore produce a mosaic of aspen gold, birch yellow, and maple scarlet against the dark boreal backdrop of spruce and fir.
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
