Peak color, most of the stand16 OctAim for 15 to 18 Oct
In the forest today, Sep 25Starting to turn
willow and black cottonwood
bigleaf maple and vine maple, peak Oct 29
Peak color should arrive around 13 Oct for the willow and black cottonwood, and around 29 Oct for the bigleaf maple and vine maple.
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 Umpqua National Forest Douglas County holds most of the forest and is starting to turn today. Lane County, to the northwest, is 2 days ahead.By elevation The forest runs from about 1,687 to 5,915 feet. That’s 15 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 29, 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 1,000 to 2,000 foot band.
6,000–7,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 294%
5,000–6,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 613%
4,000–5,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1318%
3,000–4,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 1928%
2,000–3,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2127%
1,000–2,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1410%
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.
Thursday 15 October to Friday 16 October
You’ll find it just past peak up high, peak color lower down.
Up at 5,000 feet the stands peak around Oct 6; down at 2,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 14. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
5,000–6,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 6
4,000–5,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 13
3,000–4,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 19
2,000–3,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 21
1,000–2,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 14
Where to drive
McKenzie Pass Scenic Byway (Route 242), about 81 miles
What turns
willow, black cottonwood, bigleaf maple, red alder, vine maple
What turns, and when
willow45%
black cottonwood21%
bigleaf maple13%
red alder8%
vine maple6%
Oregon white oak4%
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
