National Recreation Area·New Jersey, New York·20,358 acres
Gateway National Recreation Area
Forecast issued 25 Sep, 5:21pm ET
Peak color24 OctAim for 23 to 26 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.
Weather Wind to 44 mph Friday. Color may come down before it turns.
1 report came in from Kings County this week, 1 of them still green. Our date held. See the county on the map.
Still greenStartingNearly peakPeakPast peakNo fall canopy we forecastInside the line, each band of elevation is painted on its own date.
Around Gateway National Recreation Area Queens County holds most of the recreation area and is still green today. Kings County, to the north, is on the same day. Monmouth County, to the southwest, is 1 day behind.By elevation The recreation area runs from about 0 to 36 feet. It turns together: there isn’t enough relief here for the color to come down in stages.
0–1,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2495%
-1,000–0 ftStill greenpeak Oct 245%
SepOctNov
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.
See it now PhenoCam Network, Ldeocam 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.
The place
Spanning 27,000 acres from Sandy Hook in New Jersey to Breezy Point in New York City, the park is both the gateway from the ocean into New York Harbor, and the gateway to the National Park Service for millions of visitors every year. Gateway offers green spaces and beaches alongside historic structures and cultural landscapes. Every day, Gateway is open for you to explore, envision, and enjoy!
Set the days you can be here. Everything under them answers for those days, not for peak.
Friday 23 October to Saturday 24 October
You’ll find it peak color.
That's the day our forecast puts peak color here.
Where to drive
Palisades Interstate Parkway, about 32 miles · Route 97 (Hawk's Nest), about 72 miles · Route 28 through the Catskills, about 108 miles
What turns
red maple, blackgum, sweetgum, water oak, bald cypress
What turns, and when
red maple19%
blackgum16%
sweetgum16%
water oak16%
bald cypress14%
river birch9%
Also named across New York, outside what the canopy read measures here: Sugar Maple, American Beech, Yellow Birch, Red Oak.
The Adirondacks produce color as vivid as anywhere in New England, with sugar maples blazing orange across mountainsides of birch gold and beech bronze, all reflected in thousands of lakes.
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 7 long-running forest cameras: two dates in three land within 13 days of the camera’s own peak. How this map is made
