When is peak fall color at Spring Mountains National Recreation Area?

Our forecast puts peak color at Spring Mountains National Recreation Area around 21 Oct. The four days to aim for are 20 to 23 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Spring Mountains National Recreation Area Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Spring Mountains National Recreation Area?

Quaking Aspen, Fremont Cottonwood, Water Birch, Rocky Mountain Maple, Curlleaf Mountain Mahogany. Aspens turn gold in isolated mountain ranges rising from the Great Basin, creating dramatic contrasts of bright yellow groves against sagebrush gray and limestone white.

Peak color21 OctAim for 20 to 23 Oct

In the recreation area today, Sep 25Still green

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 Spring Mountains National Recreation Area Clark County holds most of the recreation area and is starting to turn today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 6 days earlier than the recreation area’s own stands: the recreation area is still green. Nye County, to the northwest, is 14 days ahead.

By elevation The recreation area runs from about 4,121 to 9,181 feet. That’s 23 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 4, the low ground holds until about Oct 23, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 5,000 to 6,000 foot band.

9,000–10,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 46%
8,000–9,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 88%
7,000–8,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1217%
6,000–7,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1623%
5,000–6,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2024%
4,000–5,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2318%

Height off 3DEP inside the recreation area’s own boundary; each band carries the date our model gives that elevation, corrections and all. The percentage is how much of the recreation area stands in it.

That’s 1 day later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, which shifts peak color.

Plan this trip

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.

ArrivingLeaving

Tuesday 20 October to Wednesday 21 October

You’ll find it fading up high, nearly peak lower down.

Up at 8,000 feet the stands peak around Oct 8; down at 5,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 23. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

8,000–9,000 ftFadingpeak Oct 8
7,000–8,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 12
6,000–7,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 16
5,000–6,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 20
4,000–5,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 23

What turns: Gambel oak, willow, Fremont cottonwood, bigtooth maple, serviceberry

What turns, and when

Gambel oak30%
willow17%
Fremont cottonwood13%
bigtooth maple12%
serviceberry11%
quaking aspen6%

Also named across Nevada, outside what the canopy read measures here: Water Birch, Rocky Mountain Maple, Curlleaf Mountain Mahogany.

Aspens turn gold in isolated mountain ranges rising from the Great Basin, creating dramatic contrasts of bright yellow groves against sagebrush gray and limestone white.

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

All of Nevada