Peak color, most of the stand15 OctAim for 14 to 17 Oct
In the forest today, Sep 25Starting to turn
bigleaf maple and vine maple
black cottonwood and willow, peak Sep 26
Peak color should arrive around 26 Sep for the black cottonwood and willow, and around 19 Oct for the bigleaf maple and vine maple.
Roadsides and wetland edges turn first, and the woods behind them run a few days later.
Weather Wind to 38 mph Friday. Color may come down before it turns.
2 reports came in from Lincoln County this week, 2 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 Siuslaw National Forest Lane County holds most of the forest and is starting to turn today. Lincoln County, to the north, is on the same day. Tillamook County, to the north, is 3 days ahead.By elevation The forest runs from about 85 to 1,467 feet. That’s 4 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 11, 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 0 to 500 foot band.
1,500–2,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 114%
1,000–1,500 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1319%
500–1,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1443%
0–500 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1534%
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.
Wednesday 14 October to Thursday 15 October
You’ll find it peak color.
That's the day our forecast puts peak color here.
1,000–1,500 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 13
500–1,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 14
0–500 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 15
Where to drive
McKenzie Pass Scenic Byway (Route 242), about 104 miles · Historic Columbia River Highway, about 120 miles
What turns
bigleaf maple, vine maple, black cottonwood, red alder, willow
What turns, and when
bigleaf maple31%
vine maple29%
black cottonwood19%
red alder17%
willow5%
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
