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 Fremont-Winema National Forest Klamath County holds most of the forest and is starting to turn today. Lake County, to the east, is 6 days ahead.By elevation The forest runs from about 4,304 to 6,672 feet. That’s 19 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 29, the low ground holds until about Oct 15, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 6,000 to 6,500 foot band.
6,500–7,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 295%
6,000–6,500 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 38%
5,500–6,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 615%
5,000–5,500 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 929%
4,500–5,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1229%
4,000–4,500 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1513%
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.
Saturday 3 October to Sunday 4 October
You’ll find it peak color up high, starting to turn lower down.
Up at 6,000 feet the stands peak around Oct 3; down at 4,500 feet they hold on until about Oct 15. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
6,000–6,500 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 3
5,500–6,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 6
5,000–5,500 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 9
4,500–5,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 12
4,000–4,500 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 15
Where to drive
McKenzie Pass Scenic Byway (Route 242), about 112 miles
What turns
black cottonwood, bigleaf maple, quaking aspen, red alder, vine maple
What turns, and when
black cottonwood28%
bigleaf maple18%
quaking aspen16%
red alder12%
vine maple12%
willow11%
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
