Peak color, most of the stand7 NovAim for 6 to 9 Nov
In the recreation area today, Sep 25Still green
white oak and black oak
shagbark hickory and sugar maple, peak Nov 1
Peak color should arrive around 1 Nov for the shagbark hickory and sugar maple, and around 10 Nov for the white oak and black oak.
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 Winding Stair Mountain National Recreation Area Nearly all of the recreation area is in Le Flore County, which is still green today.By elevation The recreation area runs from about 847 to 1,942 feet. That’s 4 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Nov 5, the low ground holds until about Nov 8, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 1,000 to 1,250 foot band.
1,750–2,000 ftStill greenpeak Nov 59%
1,500–1,750 ftStill greenpeak Nov 613%
1,250–1,500 ftStill greenpeak Nov 716%
1,000–1,250 ftStill greenpeak Nov 733%
750–1,000 ftStill greenpeak Nov 826%
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.
That’s 6 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.
Friday 6 November to Saturday 7 November
You’ll find it peak color.
That's the day our forecast puts peak color here.
1,750–2,000 ftPeak colorpeak Nov 5
1,500–1,750 ftPeak colorpeak Nov 6
1,250–1,500 ftPeak colorpeak Nov 7
1,000–1,250 ftPeak colorpeak Nov 7
750–1,000 ftPeak colorpeak Nov 8
Where to drive
Talimena National Scenic Byway, about 6 miles · Pig Trail Scenic Byway (Route 23), about 87 miles · Route 7 Scenic Byway, about 120 miles
What turns
white oak, black oak, shagbark hickory, sugar maple
What turns, and when
white oak43%
black oak29%
shagbark hickory14%
sugar maple14%
Also named across Oklahoma, outside what the canopy read measures here: Post Oak, Blackjack Oak, Sweetgum, Red Maple.
The Ouachita Mountains in the southeast produce the best color, with sweetgums going red and purple, oaks turning russet, and the ridgetop views from the Talimena Byway stretching for miles.
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
