When is peak fall color at Umatilla National Forest?

Our forecast puts peak color at Umatilla National Forest around 15 Oct. The four days to aim for are 14 to 17 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Umatilla National Forest Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Peak color15 OctAim for 14 to 17 Oct

In the forest today, Sep 25Starting to turn

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 Umatilla National Forest Umatilla County holds most of the forest and is starting to turn today. Grant County, to the south, is 4 days ahead. Morrow County, to the west, is 5 days ahead.

By elevation The forest runs from about 2,046 to 5,695 feet. That’s 12 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 30, 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 3,000 to 4,000 foot band.

5,000–6,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 3017%
4,000–5,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 531%
3,000–4,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1225%
2,000–3,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1119%
1,000–2,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 45%

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.

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

Wednesday 14 October to Thursday 15 October

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

Up at 5,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 30; down at 3,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 11. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

5,000–6,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 30
4,000–5,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 5
3,000–4,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 12
2,000–3,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 11

What turns: quaking aspen, serviceberry, Rocky Mountain maple, huckleberry

What turns, and when

quaking aspen60%
serviceberry14%
Rocky Mountain maple13%
huckleberry13%

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