Peak color lands around Nov 9 in most of South Carolina, but it moves 11 days across the state. Here’s where, and when, and how sure we are.
South Carolina’s season, place by place
Every place we forecast in South Carolina, each set on the calendar at its peak and painted by how far along it is today, Sep 25.
First: Ellicott Rock Wilderness, Oct 26. Last: Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge, Nov 14.
The dashed rule is today; the solid one is the median of the places on this chart, Nov 12. The date at the top of the page is the median county, which includes the low ground between them.
The county map today
Where to go in South Carolina
The destinations we cover in South Carolina, in the order their color arrives. Each carries its own forecast and its own band, because a state isn’t one place.
- Ellicott Rock WildernessToo earlyPeak 26 Oct best 25 to 28 Oct
- Cowpens National BattlefieldToo earlyPeak 3 Nov, oak 6 Nov best 2 to 5 Nov
- Kings Mountain National Military ParkToo earlyPeak 4 Nov, oak 7 Nov best 3 to 6 Nov
- Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife RefugeToo earlyPeak 7 Nov best 6 to 9 Nov
- Too earlyPeak 8 Nov best 7 to 10 Nov
- Ninety Six National Historic SiteToo earlyPeak 9 Nov, oak 15 Nov best 8 to 11 Nov
- Too earlyPeak 10 Nov best 9 to 12 Nov
- Waccamaw National Wildlife RefugeToo earlyPeak 11 Nov best 10 to 13 Nov
- Santee National Wildlife RefugeToo earlyPeak 11 Nov best 10 to 13 Nov
- Wambaw Creek WildernessToo earlyPeak 11 Nov best 10 to 13 Nov
- Cape Romain National Wildlife RefugeToo earlyPeak 12 Nov best 11 to 14 Nov
- Francis Marion National Wildlife RefugeToo earlyPeak 12 Nov best 11 to 14 Nov
- Cape Romain WildernessToo earlyPeak 12 Nov best 11 to 14 Nov
- Little Wambaw Swamp WildernessToo earlyPeak 12 Nov best 11 to 14 Nov
- Wambaw Swamp WildernessToo earlyPeak 12 Nov best 11 to 14 Nov
- Hell Hole Bay WildernessToo earlyPeak 12 Nov best 11 to 14 Nov
- Ernest F. Hollings Ace Basin National Wildlife RefugeToo earlyPeak 13 Nov best 12 to 15 Nov
- Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical ParkToo earlyPeak 13 Nov best 12 to 15 Nov
- Savannah National Wildlife RefugeToo earlyPeak 14 Nov best 13 to 16 Nov
- Pinckney Island National Wildlife RefugeToo earlyPeak 14 Nov best 13 to 16 Nov
When to go
Across 46 counties, peak color is forecast to arrive first in Greenville County around Nov 3 and last in Jasper County around Nov 14. Most of the state peaks near Nov 9.
Each date is the middle of the four days we’d aim a trip at, and each place page names them. We score the model against 16 long-running forest monitoring sites in this part of the country and publish what it got wrong.
This autumn is running 3 days late in South Carolina. September has run warmer than the 1991 to 2020 normal so far, and the dates above already include that. It’s a real signal but a modest one: temperature explains under a tenth of how much peak color moves year to year.
Mid-to-late October in the mountains, late November in the Midlands is how South Carolina is usually described.
What actually turns
The Blue Ridge escarpment in the northwest corner produces mountain color that drops off dramatically into the Piedmont, with maples and tulip poplars providing the best displays.
- Red Maple
- Sweetgum
- Tulip Poplar
- Hickory
- White Oak
The Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway (Route 11) runs along the Blue Ridge escarpment, and Table Rock State Park is the best single viewpoint for fall color in the state.
Worth the drive
Greenville County in upstate South Carolina sits at the base of the Blue Ridge escarpment and contains some of the most dramatic elevation changes in the Southeast. The county stretches from the 3,500-foot peaks along the North Carolina border down to the Piedmont at 900 feet, and the Blue Wall, as the escarpment is locally known, puts on a vertical fall display visible from the city of Greenville itself.
Every county, by peak week
Latitude does most of the work here: color moves south at about two days per degree, so the north of the state turns 5 days ahead of the south.
Greenville, Pickens
Abbeville, Anderson, Calhoun, Cherokee, Chester, Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Edgefield, Fairfield, Florence, Greenwood, Horry, Kershaw, Lancaster, Laurens, Lee, Lexington, Marion, Marlboro, McCormick, Newberry, Oconee, Orangeburg, Richland, Saluda, Spartanburg, Sumter, Union, York
Aiken, Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Beaufort, Berkeley, Charleston, Clarendon, Colleton, Dorchester, Georgetown, Hampton, Jasper, Williamsburg
Every date on this site is a forecast: a model corrected by ground reports, carrying a measured error, published in full. Check conditions with the land manager before you travel. Last reviewed September 2026. Open the live map