Peak color, most of the stand20 OctAim for 19 to 22 Oct
In the forest today, Sep 25Still green
bigleaf maple and black cottonwood
vine maple, peak Oct 31
Peak color should arrive around 19 Oct for the bigleaf maple and black cottonwood, and around 31 Oct for the vine maple.
Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
1 report came in from Lane County this week, 1 of them just starting. 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 Willamette National Forest Lane County holds most of the forest and is starting to turn today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 6 days earlier than the forest’s own stands: the forest is still green. Linn County, to the northwest, is 2 days ahead. Marion County, to the north, is 12 days ahead.By elevation The forest runs from about 1,951 to 5,830 feet. That’s 16 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 3, the low ground holds until about Oct 12, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 2,000 to 3,000 foot band.
5,000–6,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 316%
4,000–5,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1024%
3,000–4,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1631%
2,000–3,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 1921%
1,000–2,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 126%
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.
Latest daylight frame PhenoCam Network, McRae Creek camera, 17 km away, captured Sep 24.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.
Monday 19 October to Tuesday 20 October
You’ll find it fading up high, peak color lower down.
Up at 5,000 feet the stands peak around Oct 3; down at 3,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 19. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
5,000–6,000 ftFadingpeak Oct 3
4,000–5,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 10
3,000–4,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 16
2,000–3,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 19
Where to drive
McKenzie Pass Scenic Byway (Route 242), about 21 miles · Historic Columbia River Highway, about 102 miles
What turns
bigleaf maple, black cottonwood, willow, red alder, vine maple
What turns, and when
bigleaf maple23%
black cottonwood22%
willow17%
red alder16%
vine maple11%
Oregon white oak6%
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
