Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
Weather Wind to 38 mph Saturday. Color may come down before it turns.
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 Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest Beaverhead County holds most of the forest and is peak color today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 4 days later than the forest’s own stands: the forest is just past peak. Jefferson County, to the northeast, is 2 days behind. Madison County, to the east, is on the same day.By elevation The forest runs from about 4,568 to 8,759 feet. That’s 32 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 10, 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 7,000 to 8,000 foot band.
8,000–9,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 1012%
7,000–8,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1627%
6,000–7,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2331%
5,000–6,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 2917%
4,000–5,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 69%
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, Continental Divide camera, 46 km away, captured Sep 25.
That’s 1 day 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.
Friday 18 September to Saturday 19 September
You’ll find it just past peak up high, starting to turn lower down.
Up at 8,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 10; down at 5,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 6. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
8,000–9,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 10
7,000–8,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 16
6,000–7,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 23
5,000–6,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Sep 29
4,000–5,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 6
Where to drive
Skalkaho Pass (MT 38), about 66 miles · Seeley-Swan Highway (MT 83), about 131 miles · Teton Scenic Byway (ID 31, 32 and 33), about 149 miles
What turns
quaking aspen, narrowleaf cottonwood, willow, water birch, thinleaf alder
What turns, and when
quaking aspen41%
narrowleaf cottonwood22%
willow14%
water birch7%
thinleaf alder6%
serviceberry4%
Also named across Montana, outside what the canopy read measures here: Western Larch, Black Cottonwood, Rocky Mountain Maple, Paper Birch.
Montana's fall is a two-act show: aspens and cottonwoods turn gold around 19 Sep, then western larches steal the finale in mid-October, turning entire mountain slopes amber before dropping their needles.
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. Out here we score it against NASA's satellite record of when the canopy shuts down, read inside each unit’s own boundary: two dates in three land within 12 days of it. How this map is made
