When is peak fall color at Big Bend National Park?

Our forecast puts peak color at Big Bend National Park around 16 Nov. The four days to aim for are 15 to 18 Nov. We publish our error rate.

Big Bend National Park Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Big Bend National Park?

Bald Cypress, Sweetgum, Red Oak, Bigtooth Maple, Sycamore. 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.

Peak color16 NovAim for 15 to 18 Nov

In the park today, Sep 25Still green

Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.

No new reports from the ground here this week.

Still greenStartingNearly peakPeakPast peakNo fall canopy we forecastInside the line, each band of elevation is painted on its own date.

Around Big Bend National Park Nearly all of the park is in Brewster County, which is still green today.

By elevation The park runs from about 2,038 to 4,555 feet. That’s 11 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Nov 10, the low ground holds until about Nov 15, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 2,000 to 3,000 foot band.

4,000–5,000 ftStill greenpeak Nov 106%
3,000–4,000 ftStill greenpeak Nov 1234%
2,000–3,000 ftStill greenpeak Nov 1553%

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.

That’s 4 days later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, which shifts peak color.

The place

Eight hours from the nearest real airport. 801,163 acres of Chihuahuan Desert in southwest Texas where the Rio Grande bends 90 degrees along the Mexican border. The Chisos Mountains rise to 7,832 feet out of the desert floor, holding an entire forested ecosystem that has no business being there. You can go all day without seeing another car.

Established 1944. About 463K/year visitors.

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.

ArrivingLeaving

Sunday 15 November to Monday 16 November

You’ll find it just past peak up high, peak color lower down.

Up at 3,000 feet the stands peak around Nov 12; down at 3,000 feet they hold on until about Nov 15. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

3,000–4,000 ftJust past peakpeak Nov 12
2,000–3,000 ftPeak colorpeak Nov 15

What turns: bigtooth maple, chinkapin oak, Arizona walnut, velvet ash, Fremont cottonwood
Entrance: $30

What turns, and when

bigtooth maple31%
chinkapin oak15%
Arizona walnut15%
velvet ash9%
Fremont cottonwood9%
willow9%

Also named across Texas, outside what the canopy read measures here: Bald Cypress, Sweetgum, Red Oak, Sycamore.

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.

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

All of Texas