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 Malheur National Forest Grant County holds most of the forest and is starting to turn today. Harney County, to the south, is 9 days ahead.By elevation The forest runs from about 3,957 to 6,442 feet. That’s 19 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 26, 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 3,000 to 4,000 foot band.
6,000–7,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2610%
5,000–6,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 346%
4,000–5,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 938%
3,000–4,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 156%
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.
Tuesday 13 October to Wednesday 14 October
You’ll find it fading up high, just past peak lower down.
Up at 6,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 26; down at 5,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 9. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
6,000–7,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 26
5,000–6,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 3
4,000–5,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 9
Where to drive
McKenzie Pass Scenic Byway (Route 242), about 146 miles
What turns
quaking aspen, serviceberry, Rocky Mountain maple, huckleberry, black cottonwood
What turns, and when
quaking aspen55%
serviceberry13%
Rocky Mountain maple11%
huckleberry11%
black cottonwood6%
willow4%
Also named across Oregon, outside what the canopy read measures here: Vine Maple, Bigleaf Maple, 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
