When is peak fall color at Arches National Park?

Our forecast puts peak color at Arches National Park around 30 Oct. The four days to aim for are 29 Oct to 1 Nov. We publish our error rate.

Arches National Park Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Arches National Park?

Quaking Aspen, Bigtooth Maple, Gambel Oak, Narrowleaf Cottonwood, Rocky Mountain Maple. Utah's fall is a dual show: aspens turn gold on the high plateaus while bigtooth maples along the Wasatch Front go vivid scarlet, creating one of the most colorful mountain fronts in the West.

Peak color30 OctAim for 29 Oct to 1 Nov

In the park today, Sep 25Still green

Before you drive inA timed-entry ticket is required to enter during the day. Through October, in the daytime hours; outside them the gate is open. The park’s own page on it.

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 Arches National Park Nearly all of the park is in Grand County, which is nearly peak today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 30 days earlier than the park’s own stands: the park is still green.

By elevation The park runs from about 4,148 to 5,239 feet. That’s 10 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 21, the low ground holds until about Oct 30, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 4,000 to 4,250 foot band.

5,250–5,500 ftStill greenpeak Oct 214%
5,000–5,250 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2316%
4,750–5,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2533%
4,500–4,750 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2625%
4,250–4,500 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2814%
4,000–4,250 ftStill greenpeak Oct 306%

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.

Today from the castlevalley camera, 15 km from Arches National Park — See it now PhenoCam Network, USGS Experimental Warming camera, 15 km away, captured Sep 25.

That’s 2 days later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, which shifts peak color.

The place

Over 2,000 natural stone arches in 76,519 acres of southeast Utah. The highest concentration on Earth, and it is not particularly close. Delicate Arch gets all the attention (65 feet of freestanding sandstone, Utah license plates, sunset crowds shoulder to shoulder) but the place rewards you most when you wander away from the trail and find one nobody else bothered to visit.

Established 1971. About 1.8 million/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

Thursday 29 October to Friday 30 October

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

Up at 5,000 feet the stands peak around Oct 23; down at 4,500 feet they hold on until about Oct 28. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

5,000–5,250 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 23
4,750–5,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 25
4,500–4,750 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 26
4,250–4,500 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 28

Where to drive: Grand Mesa Scenic Byway (CO 65), about 85 miles · Dallas Divide (CO 62), about 100 miles · Last Dollar Road, about 103 miles
What turns: quaking aspen, Gambel oak, bigtooth maple, serviceberry
Entrance: $30

What turns, and when

quaking aspen42%
Gambel oak29%
bigtooth maple14%
serviceberry14%

Also named across Utah, outside what the canopy read measures here: Narrowleaf Cottonwood, Rocky Mountain Maple.

Utah's fall is a dual show: aspens turn gold on the high plateaus while bigtooth maples along the Wasatch Front go vivid scarlet, creating one of the most colorful mountain fronts in the West.

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 Utah