South Dakota Fall Color Map 2026

The county map today

Where to go in South Dakota

The destinations we cover in South Dakota, in the order their color arrives. Each carries its own forecast and its own band, because a state isn’t one place.

1. Custer National ForestMontana, South Dakota
   PeakPeak 26 Sep best 25 to 28 Sep
2. Black Hills National ForestSouth Dakota, Wyoming
   Near peakPeak 3 Oct best 2 to 5 Oct
3. Waubay National Wildlife RefugeSouth Dakota
   Too earlyPeak 6 Oct best 5 to 8 Oct
4. Sand Lake National Wildlife RefugeSouth Dakota
   Too earlyPeak 7 Oct best 6 to 9 Oct
5. Lacreek National Wildlife RefugeSouth Dakota
   Too earlyPeak 9 Oct best 8 to 11 Oct
6. Fort Pierre National GrasslandSouth Dakota
   Too earlyPeak 10 Oct best 9 to 12 Oct
7. Grand River National GrasslandSouth Dakota
   Too earlyPeak 11 Oct best 10 to 13 Oct
8. Black Elk WildernessSouth Dakota
   Too earlyPeak 11 Oct best 10 to 13 Oct
9. Beadle County Waterfowl Production AreaSouth Dakota
   Too earlyPeak 11 Oct best 10 to 13 Oct
10. Jewel Cave National MonumentSouth Dakota
    Too earlyPeak 13 Oct best 12 to 15 Oct
11. Lake Andes National Wildlife RefugeSouth Dakota
    Too earlyPeak 13 Oct best 12 to 15 Oct
12. Badlands National ParkSouth Dakota
    Too earlyPeak 14 Oct best 13 to 16 Oct
13. Karl E. Mundt National Wildlife RefugeSouth Dakota
    Too earlyPeak 14 Oct best 13 to 16 Oct
14. Mount Rushmore National MemorialSouth Dakota
    Too earlyPeak 16 Oct best 15 to 18 Oct
15. Buffalo Gap National GrasslandSouth Dakota
    Too earlyPeak 18 Oct best 17 to 20 Oct
16. Wind Cave National ParkSouth Dakota
    Too earlyPeak 22 Oct best 21 to 24 Oct

When to go

Across 66 counties, peak color is forecast to arrive first in Lawrence County around Sep 26 and last in Fall River County around Oct 26. Most of the state peaks near Oct 10.

Each date is the middle of the four days we’d aim a trip at, and each place page names them. We publish what the model got wrong, region by region.

This autumn is running 3 days late in South Dakota. 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.

1 of 66 counties here are corrected by people who have actually looked at the trees this season. 1 report from official state sources have moved those dates off the model and narrowed their windows. Counties with neither keep the model forecast and say so. Which is which is marked in the table below.

Late September to mid-October in the Black Hills, mid-October in the Missouri River valley is how South Dakota is usually described.

What actually turns

The Black Hills produce a colorful mix of aspen gold and birch yellow against the dark green of ponderosa pine, while Spearfish Canyon stages the most dramatic display.

• Quaking Aspen
• Bur Oak
• Cottonwood
• Paper Birch
• Green Ash

Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway (Route 14A) is one of the most underrated fall drives in America, with limestone walls framed by birch, aspen, and oak color.

Every county, by peak week

Elevation does most of the work here. Color runs down a mountain at roughly a day per 100 meters, so a ridge and the valley below it can be a week or two apart in the same county.