When is peak fall color at Mount Nebo Wilderness?

Our forecast puts peak color at Mount Nebo Wilderness around 8 Oct. The four days to aim for are 7 to 10 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Mount Nebo Wilderness Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Mount Nebo Wilderness?

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 color8 OctAim for 7 to 10 Oct

In the wilderness today, Sep 25Starting to turn

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

3 reports came in from Juab County this week, 2 of them at peak and 1 of them patchy color. 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 Mount Nebo Wilderness Juab County holds most of the wilderness and is just past peak today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 16 days earlier than the wilderness’s own stands: the wilderness is starting to turn. Utah County, to the northeast, is 8 days behind.

By elevation The wilderness runs from about 5,870 to 10,357 feet. That’s 31 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 14, 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 6,000 to 7,000 foot band.

10,000–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 149%
9,000–10,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2118%
8,000–9,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 2723%
7,000–8,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 325%
6,000–7,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1018%
5,000–6,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 157%

Height off 3DEP inside the wilderness’s own boundary; each band carries the date our model gives that elevation, corrections and all. The percentage is how much of the wilderness stands in it.

That’s 1 day later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, which shifts peak color.

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

Wednesday 7 October to Thursday 8 October

You’ll find it leaves down up high, nearly peak lower down.

Up at 10,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 14; down at 7,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 10. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

10,000–11,000 ftLeaves downpeak Sep 14
9,000–10,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 21
8,000–9,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 27
7,000–8,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 3
6,000–7,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 10

Where to drive: Nebo Loop, about 2 miles · Alpine Scenic Loop (Routes 92 and 189), about 44 miles · Guardsman Pass, about 55 miles
What turns: quaking aspen, bigtooth maple, Gambel oak, serviceberry

What turns, and when

quaking aspen59%
bigtooth maple22%
Gambel oak16%
serviceberry3%

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