Roadsides and wetland edges turn first, and the woods behind them run a few days later.
No new reports from the ground here this week.
That’s 4 days later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, which shifts peak color.
Plan this tripIf you can only come on certain days
Set the days you can be here. Everything under them answers for those days, not for peak.
Sunday 1 November to Monday 2 November
You’ll find it peak color.
That's the day our forecast puts peak color here.
- Where to drive
- Skyline Drive, about 114 miles · Route 39 (Goshen Pass), about 125 miles
- What turns
- water oak, sweetgum, blackgum, red maple, bald cypress
What turns, and when
- water oak20%
- sweetgum19%
- blackgum19%
- red maple17%
- bald cypress7%
- white oak7%
Also named across Virginia, outside what the canopy read measures here: Tulip Poplar, Hickory, Sourwood.
Shenandoah's overlooks reveal a warm mosaic of gold tulip poplars, scarlet maples, bronze hickories, and the deep wine of white oaks stretching along the Blue Ridge.
Across Virginia as a whole: Early-to-mid October at the highest elevations, late October on Skyline Drive, early November in the Piedmont.
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. We score it here against 7 long-running forest cameras: two dates in three land within 13 days of the camera’s own peak. How this map is made