When is peak fall color at Bryce Canyon National Park?

Our forecast puts peak color at Bryce Canyon National Park around 17 Oct. The four days to aim for are 16 to 19 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Bryce Canyon National Park Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Bryce Canyon 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 color17 OctAim for 16 to 19 Oct

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 Bryce Canyon National Park Garfield County holds most of the park and is nearly peak today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 20 days earlier than the park’s own stands: the park is still green. Kane County, to the southeast, is 5 days behind.

By elevation The park runs from about 7,008 to 8,638 feet. That’s 11 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 4, the low ground holds until about Oct 15, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 6,500 to 7,000 foot band.

8,500–9,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 49%
8,000–8,500 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 617%
7,500–8,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 945%
7,000–7,500 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1224%
6,500–7,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 155%

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

The place

The largest collection of hoodoos on Earth, sitting between 8,000 and 9,100 feet in southern Utah. At sunrise the whole amphitheater turns orange, then red, then pink, then something that does not have a name. The colors shift by the minute. You will burn through a memory card before breakfast and not regret a single frame.

Established 1928. About 2.4 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

Friday 16 October to Saturday 17 October

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

Up at 8,500 feet the stands peak around Oct 4; down at 7,500 feet they hold on until about Oct 12. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

8,500–9,000 ftFadingpeak Oct 4
8,000–8,500 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 6
7,500–8,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 9
7,000–7,500 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 12

Where to drive: Boulder Mountain (UT 12), about 51 miles · Fish Lake Scenic Byway (UT 25), about 71 miles
What turns: Gambel oak, quaking aspen, bigtooth maple, serviceberry
Entrance: $35

What turns, and when

Gambel oak40%
quaking aspen25%
bigtooth maple19%
serviceberry16%

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