Peak color, most of the stand6 OctAim for 5 to 8 Oct
In the forest today, Sep 25Starting to turn
black cottonwood and quaking aspen
western larch, peak Oct 19
Peak color should arrive around 5 Oct for the black cottonwood and quaking aspen, and around 19 Oct for the western larch.
Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
Weather Wind to 35 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 Kootenai National Forest Nearly all of the forest is in Lincoln County, which is nearly peak today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 3 days earlier than the forest’s own stands: the forest is starting to turn.By elevation The forest runs from about 2,615 to 6,114 feet. That’s 20 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 14, the low ground holds until about Oct 4, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 2,000 to 3,000 foot band.
6,000–7,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 146%
5,000–6,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2024%
4,000–5,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2633%
3,000–4,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 324%
2,000–3,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 412%
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.
Set the days you can be here. Everything under them answers for those days, not for peak.
Monday 5 October to Tuesday 6 October
You’ll find it fading up high, peak color lower down.
Up at 5,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 20; down at 3,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 4. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
5,000–6,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 20
4,000–5,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 26
3,000–4,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 3
2,000–3,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 4
Where to drive
Going-to-the-Sun Road, about 78 miles · Seeley-Swan Highway (MT 83), about 118 miles · Sherman Pass Scenic Byway (Route 20), about 137 miles
What turns
black cottonwood, quaking aspen, Rocky Mountain maple, serviceberry, huckleberry
What turns, and when
black cottonwood33%
quaking aspen29%
Rocky Mountain maple9%
serviceberry9%
huckleberry9%
western larch6%
Also named across Montana, outside what the canopy read measures here: Paper Birch.
Montana's fall is a two-act show: aspens and cottonwoods turn gold around 5 Oct, then western larches steal the finale around 19 Oct, 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
