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Forecast issued 25 Sep, 3:53pm ET

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El Capitan in the Guadalupe Mountains.

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Texas Fall Foliage Map 2026

Forecast issued 25 Sep, 3:53pm ET

Photograph: More Than Just Parks

Peak color lands around Nov 13 in most of Texas, but it moves 35 days across the state. Here’s where, and when, and how sure we are.

Texas’s season, place by place

The 24 places closest to their peak in Texas, each set on the calendar at its peak and painted by how far along it is today, Sep 25.

First: Lake Meredith National Recreation Area, Oct 30. Last: Harvey Creek Recreation Area, Nov 17.

The dashed rule is today; the solid one is the median of the places on this chart, Nov 13. The date at the top of the page is the median county, which includes the low ground between them.

The county map today

Lake MeredithBuffalo LakeAlibates Flint QuarriesGuadalupe MountainsMcClellan Creek National GrasslandRita Blanca National GrasslandBlack Kettle National GrasslandMuleshoeFort Davis National Historic SiteLyndon B. Johnson National Grassland
Texas, Sep 25 Still green to peak to past peak, the map’s own scale. Open the live map to scrub the day.

Where to go in Texas

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

  1. Lake Meredith National Recreation AreaTexas
    Too earlyPeak 30 Oct best 29 Oct to 1 Nov
  2. Buffalo Lake National Wildlife RefugeTexas
    Too earlyPeak 30 Oct best 29 Oct to 1 Nov
  3. Alibates Flint Quarries National MonumentTexas
    Too earlyPeak 30 Oct best 29 Oct to 1 Nov
  4. Guadalupe Mountains National ParkNew Mexico, Texas
    Too earlyPeak 31 Oct best 30 Oct to 2 Nov
  5. McClellan Creek National GrasslandTexas
    Too earlyPeak 31 Oct best 30 Oct to 2 Nov
  6. Rita Blanca National GrasslandOklahoma, Texas
    Too earlyPeak 1 Nov best 31 Oct to 3 Nov
  7. Black Kettle National GrasslandOklahoma, Texas
    Too earlyPeak 1 Nov best 31 Oct to 3 Nov
  8. Muleshoe National Wildlife RefugeTexas
    Too earlyPeak 1 Nov best 31 Oct to 3 Nov
  9. Fort Davis National Historic SiteTexas
    Too earlyPeak 5 Nov best 4 to 7 Nov
  10. Lyndon B. Johnson National GrasslandTexas
    Too earlyPeak 11 Nov best 10 to 13 Nov
  11. Hagerman National Wildlife RefugeTexas
    Too earlyPeak 11 Nov best 10 to 13 Nov
  12. Caddo National GrasslandTexas
    Too earlyPeak 12 Nov, white oak 19 Nov best 11 to 14 Nov
  13. Caddo Lake National Wildlife RefugeTexas
    Too earlyPeak 13 Nov best 12 to 15 Nov
  14. Big Bend National ParkTexas
    Too earlyPeak 16 Nov best 15 to 18 Nov
  15. Sabine National ForestTexas
    Too earlyPeak 16 Nov best 15 to 18 Nov
  16. Neches River National Wildlife RefugeTexas
    Too earlyPeak 16 Nov best 15 to 18 Nov
  17. Turkey Hill WildernessTexas
    Too earlyPeak 16 Nov best 15 to 18 Nov
  18. Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical ParkTexas
    Too earlyPeak 16 Nov best 15 to 18 Nov
  19. Davy Crockett National ForestTexas
    Too earlyPeak 17 Nov best 16 to 19 Nov
  20. Angelina National ForestTexas
    Too earlyPeak 17 Nov best 16 to 19 Nov
  21. Upland Island WildernessTexas
    Too earlyPeak 17 Nov best 16 to 19 Nov
  22. Indian Mounds WildernessTexas
    Too earlyPeak 17 Nov best 16 to 19 Nov
  23. Big Slough WildernessTexas
    Too earlyPeak 17 Nov best 16 to 19 Nov
  24. Harvey Creek Recreation AreaTexas
    Too earlyPeak 17 Nov best 16 to 19 Nov

Also forecast in TexasAmistad National Recreation AreaPadre Island National SeashoreSam Houston National Forest

When to go

Across 254 counties, peak color is forecast to arrive first in Sherman County around Oct 26 and last in Cameron County around Nov 30. Most of the state peaks near Nov 13.

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 7 long-running forest monitoring sites in this part of the country and publish what it got wrong.

This autumn is running 4 days late in Texas. 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.

Late October in the Guadalupes, mid-November in the Hill Country, late November in East Texas is how Texas is usually described.

What actually turns

Bald cypresses turn copper and russet along the Hill Country rivers, bigtooth maples in the Guadalupe Mountains produce pockets of scarlet, and sweetgums color the Piney Woods red and purple.

  • Bald Cypress
  • Sweetgum
  • Red Oak
  • Bigtooth Maple
  • Sycamore

Lost Maples State Natural Area in the Hill Country protects a relict grove of bigtooth maples that turn vivid scarlet, and it is one of the most surprising fall destinations in the South.

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.

Oct 26

Hartley, Sherman

Oct 28 to Nov 3

Armstrong, Bailey, Briscoe, Carson, Castro, Cochran, Collingsworth, Culberson, Dallam, Deaf Smith, Donley, Floyd, Gray, Hale, Hansford, Hemphill, Hockley, Hutchinson, Lamb, Lipscomb, Lubbock, Moore, Motley, Ochiltree, Oldham, Parmer, Potter, Randall, Roberts, Swisher, Wheeler, Yoakum

Nov 4 to Nov 10

Andrews, Archer, Baylor, Borden, Brewster, Callahan, Childress, Clay, Cottle, Crane, Crosby, Dawson, Dickens, Ector, El Paso, Fisher, Foard, Gaines, Garza, Glasscock, Hall, Hardeman, Haskell, Howard, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, Jones, Kent, King, Knox, Loving, Lynn, Martin, Midland, Mitchell, Montague, Nolan, Pecos, Presidio, Reagan, Reeves, Scurry, Shackelford, Sterling, Stonewall, Taylor, Terry, Throckmorton, Upton, Ward, Wichita, Wilbarger, Winkler, Young

Nov 11 to Nov 17

Anderson, Angelina, Bell, Blanco, Bosque, Bowie, Brown, Burnet, Camp, Cass, Cherokee, Coke, Coleman, Collin, Comanche, Concho, Cooke, Coryell, Crockett, Dallas, Delta, Denton, Eastland, Edwards, Ellis, Erath, Falls, Fannin, Franklin, Freestone, Gillespie, Grayson, Gregg, Hamilton, Harrison, Henderson, Hill, Hood, Hopkins, Houston, Hunt, Irion, Jack, Johnson, Kaufman, Kendall, Kerr, Kimble, Lamar, Lampasas, Leon, Limestone, Llano, Marion, Mason, McCulloch, McLennan, Menard, Mills, Morris, Nacogdoches, Navarro, Palo Pinto, Panola, Parker, Rains, Real, Red River, Rockwall, Runnels, Rusk, Sabine, San Augustine, San Saba, Schleicher, Shelby, Smith, Somervell, Stephens, Sutton, Tarrant, Terrell, Titus, Tom Green, Trinity, Upshur, Uvalde, Val Verde, Van Zandt, Williamson, Wise, Wood

Nov 18 to Nov 24

Atascosa, Austin, Bandera, Bastrop, Bee, Bexar, Brazoria, Brazos, Burleson, Caldwell, Calhoun, Chambers, Colorado, Comal, DeWitt, Dimmit, Fayette, Fort Bend, Frio, Galveston, Goliad, Gonzales, Grimes, Guadalupe, Hardin, Harris, Hays, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Karnes, Kinney, La Salle, Lavaca, Lee, Liberty, Live Oak, Madison, Matagorda, Maverick, McMullen, Medina, Milam, Montgomery, Newton, Orange, Polk, Robertson, San Jacinto, Travis, Tyler, Victoria, Walker, Waller, Washington, Wharton, Wilson, Zavala

Nov 25 to Nov 30

Aransas, Brooks, Cameron, Duval, Hidalgo, Jim Hogg, Jim Wells, Kenedy, Kleberg, Nueces, Refugio, San Patricio, Starr, Webb, Willacy, Zapata

How this map is madeThe trees, the elevation, this September’s weather and reports from the ground, scored against 68 forest cameras. Median error 6 days.

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