When is peak fall color at Mount Olympus Wilderness?

Our forecast puts peak color at Mount Olympus Wilderness around 11 Oct. The four days to aim for are 10 to 13 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Mount Olympus Wilderness Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Mount Olympus 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 color11 OctAim for 10 to 13 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.

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 Mount Olympus Wilderness Nearly all of the wilderness is in Salt Lake County, which is starting to turn today.

By elevation The wilderness runs from about 5,705 to 9,278 feet. That’s 24 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 19, the low ground holds until about Oct 13, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 5,000 to 6,000 foot band.

9,000–10,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1910%
8,000–9,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2524%
7,000–8,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 131%
6,000–7,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 726%
5,000–6,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1310%

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.

Today from the NEON.D15.REDB.DP1.20002 camera, 15 km from Mount Olympus Wilderness — See it now PhenoCam Network, Red Butte Creek camera, 15 km away, captured Sep 25.

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

Saturday 10 October to Sunday 11 October

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

Up at 9,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 19; down at 6,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 13. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

9,000–10,000 ftLeaves downpeak Sep 19
8,000–9,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 25
7,000–8,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 1
6,000–7,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 7
5,000–6,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 13

Where to drive: Guardsman Pass, about 10 miles · Alpine Scenic Loop (Routes 92 and 189), about 16 miles · Mirror Lake Highway (UT 150), about 36 miles
What turns: quaking aspen, bigtooth maple, Gambel oak

What turns, and when

quaking aspen45%
bigtooth maple37%
Gambel oak18%

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