When is peak fall color at Hells Canyon National Recreation Area?

Our forecast puts peak color at Hells Canyon National Recreation Area around 10 Oct. The four days to aim for are 9 to 12 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Hells Canyon National Recreation Area Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Peak color10 OctAim for 9 to 12 Oct

In the recreation area today, Sep 25Starting to turn

Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.

1 report came in from Wallowa 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 Hells Canyon National Recreation Area Idaho County holds most of the recreation area and is nearly peak today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 12 days earlier than the recreation area’s own stands: the recreation area is starting to turn. Wallowa County, to the west, is 7 days behind. Adams County, to the south, is 9 days behind.

By elevation The recreation area runs from about 1,606 to 6,774 feet. That’s 14 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 20, the low ground holds until about Oct 4, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 2,000 to 4,000 foot band.

6,000–8,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2011%
4,000–6,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 337%
2,000–4,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1542%
0–2,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 410%

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.

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

Friday 9 October to Saturday 10 October

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

Up at 6,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 20; down at 2,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 4. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

6,000–8,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 20
4,000–6,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 3
2,000–4,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 15
0–2,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 4

Where to drive: Ponderosa Pine Scenic Byway (ID 21), about 117 miles · Sawtooth Scenic Byway (ID 75), about 146 miles · Skalkaho Pass (MT 38), about 147 miles
What turns: quaking aspen, serviceberry, Rocky Mountain maple, huckleberry, chokecherry

What turns, and when

quaking aspen55%
serviceberry16%
Rocky Mountain maple13%
huckleberry13%
chokecherry3%

Also named across Oregon, outside what the canopy read measures here: Vine Maple, Bigleaf Maple, Black Cottonwood, Red Alder, 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

All of Oregon