Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
Weather Hard frost Saturday night. Peak may come early and go fast.
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 Deschutes National Forest Deschutes County holds most of the forest and is starting to turn today. Klamath County, to the south, is 1 day ahead. Jefferson County, to the north, is 7 days behind.By elevation The forest runs from about 3,293 to 6,429 feet. That’s 21 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 27, the low ground holds until about Oct 18, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 4,000 to 5,000 foot band.
6,000–7,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 2710%
5,000–6,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 429%
4,000–5,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1050%
3,000–4,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 1811%
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, ponderosa pine bud camera, 22 km away, captured Sep 25.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.
Wednesday 7 October to Thursday 8 October
You’ll find it just past peak up high, starting to turn lower down.
Up at 6,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 27; down at 4,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 18. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
6,000–7,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 27
5,000–6,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 4
4,000–5,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 10
3,000–4,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 18
Where to drive
McKenzie Pass Scenic Byway (Route 242), about 32 miles · Historic Columbia River Highway, about 123 miles
What turns
black cottonwood, bigleaf maple, willow, red alder, vine maple
What turns, and when
black cottonwood27%
bigleaf maple22%
willow18%
red alder17%
vine maple9%
red-osier dogwood6%
Also named across Oregon, outside what the canopy read measures here: Western Larch.
Vine maples turn vivid scarlet in the understory of Douglas fir forests, bigleaf maples go gold with enormous leaves, and the Columbia Gorge frames it all against waterfalls and basalt.
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
