National Park·North Carolina, Tennessee·520,674 acres
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Forecast issued 25 Sep, 5:21pm ET
Photograph: More Than Just Parks
Peak color22 OctAim for 21 to 24 Oct
In the park today, Sep 25Still green
Before you drive inA parking tag is required for any vehicle parked longer than fifteen minutes. Daily, weekly or annual, sold online and at visitor centers. There is no entrance fee. The park’s own page on it.
Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
29 reports came in from Sevier County this week, 19 of them just starting and 5 of them patchy color. 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 Great Smoky Mountains National Park Sevier County holds most of the park and is still green today. Blount County, to the west, is 4 days behind. Swain County, to the south, is 4 days ahead.By elevation The park runs from about 1,521 to 5,071 feet. That’s 17 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 14, the low ground holds until about Oct 31, 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 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 146%
4,000–5,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 1819%
3,000–4,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2224%
2,000–3,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2727%
1,000–2,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 3124%
SepOctNov
Height off 3DEP inside the park’s own boundary; each band carries the date our model gives that elevation, corrections and all. The percentage is how much of the park stands in it.
See it now National Park Service, Look Rock webcam, inside the park, captured Sep 25.
That’s 5 days later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, which shifts peak color.
The place
The most visited national park by a wide margin. It protects one of the most biodiverse temperate forests on Earth. Go in mid-October when the hardwoods turn, or in late spring when the synchronous fireflies put on a show that looks engineered.
Established 1934. About 12.1 million/year visitors.
Set the days you can be here. Everything under them answers for those days, not for peak.
Wednesday 21 October to Thursday 22 October
You’ll find it just past peak up high, starting to turn lower down.
Up at 4,000 feet the stands peak around Oct 18; down at 2,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 31. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
4,000–5,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 18
3,000–4,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 22
2,000–3,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 27
1,000–2,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 31
Where to drive
Newfound Gap Road, about 4 miles · Cherohala Skyway, about 34 miles · Blue Ridge Parkway (NC Section), about 75 miles
What turns
northern red oak, red maple, white oak, shagbark hickory, sugar maple
Entrance
No entrance fee
What turns, and when
northern red oak26%
red maple24%
white oak15%
shagbark hickory13%
sugar maple11%
tulip poplar5%
Also named across Tennessee, outside what the canopy read measures here: Sourwood.
The Great Smoky Mountains produce a warm, layered fall where tulip poplars turn gold, sourwoods go crimson, hickories fade to bronze, and the ridgelines recede in hazy waves of color.
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. We score it here against 16 long-running forest cameras: two dates in three land within 7 days of the camera’s own peak. How this map is made
