Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
Weather Wind to 40 mph Friday. Color may come down before it turns.
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 Mount Washington Wilderness Linn County holds most of the wilderness and is starting to turn today. Lane County, to the southwest, is 2 days behind. Deschutes County, to the southeast, is 1 day ahead.By elevation The wilderness runs from about 3,775 to 5,850 feet. That’s 17 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 1, the low ground holds until about Oct 14, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 4,000 to 4,500 foot band.
5,500–6,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 19%
5,000–5,500 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 427%
4,500–5,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 739%
4,000–4,500 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1014%
3,500–4,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 149%
SepOctNov
Height off 3DEP inside the wilderness’s own boundary; each band carries the date our model gives that elevation, corrections and all. The percentage is how much of the wilderness 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.
Friday 9 October to Saturday 10 October
You’ll find it just past peak up high, nearly peak lower down.
Up at 5,500 feet the stands peak around Oct 1; down at 4,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 14. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
5,500–6,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 1
5,000–5,500 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 4
4,500–5,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 7
4,000–4,500 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 10
3,500–4,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 14
Where to drive
McKenzie Pass Scenic Byway (Route 242), about 5 miles · Historic Columbia River Highway, about 89 miles
What turns
bigleaf maple, vine maple, black cottonwood, red alder, willow
What turns, and when
bigleaf maple29%
vine maple22%
black cottonwood21%
red alder18%
willow7%
red-osier dogwood3%
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
