National Recreation Area·Arizona, Utah·1,237,097 acres
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
Forecast issued 25 Sep, 3:53pm ET
Peak color5 NovAim for 4 to 7 Nov
In the recreation area today, Sep 25Still green
Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
1 report came in from Kane County this week, 1 of them still green. 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 Glen Canyon National Recreation Area San Juan County holds most of the recreation area and is nearly peak today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 34 days earlier than the recreation area’s own stands: the recreation area is still green. Coconino County, to the southwest, is 6 days behind. Kane County, to the southwest, is on the same day.By elevation The recreation area runs from about 3,735 to 6,013 feet. That’s 17 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 19, the low ground holds until about Nov 5, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 3,500 to 4,000 foot band.
6,000–6,500 ftStill greenpeak Oct 195%
5,500–6,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2310%
5,000–5,500 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2617%
4,500–5,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 3022%
4,000–4,500 ftStill greenpeak Nov 228%
3,500–4,000 ftStill greenpeak Nov 517%
SepOctNov
Height off 3DEP inside the recreation area’s own boundary; each band carries the date our model gives that elevation, corrections and all. The percentage is how much of the recreation area 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
Encompassing over 1.25 million acres, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area offers unparalleled opportunities for water-based & backcountry recreation. The recreation area stretches for hundreds of miles from Lees Ferry in Arizona to the Orange Cliffs of southern Utah, encompassing scenic vistas, geologic wonders, and a vast panorama of human history.
Also named across Utah, outside what the canopy read measures here: 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
