When is peak fall color at Glacier Peak Wilderness?

Our forecast puts peak color at Glacier Peak Wilderness around 4 Oct. The four days to aim for are 3 to 6 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Glacier Peak Wilderness Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Glacier Peak Wilderness?

Vine Maple, Bigleaf Maple, Black Cottonwood, Red Alder, Western Larch. Vine maples turn scarlet in the Cascade understory, bigleaf maples go gold in the lowlands, and the western larches in the Okanogan and Wenatchee forests turn amber on the high slopes.

Peak color, most of the stand4 OctAim for 3 to 6 Oct

In the wilderness today, Sep 25Starting to turn

black cottonwood and red alder

bigleaf maple, peak Oct 6

Peak color should arrive around 27 Sep for the black cottonwood and red alder, and around 6 Oct for the bigleaf maple.

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 Glacier Peak Wilderness Chelan County holds most of the wilderness and is starting to turn today. Snohomish County, to the west, is 3 days ahead. Skagit County, to the northwest, is 4 days ahead.

By elevation The wilderness runs from about 2,368 to 7,054 feet. That’s 21 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 6, the low ground holds until about Oct 6, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 2,000 to 3,000 foot band.

7,000–8,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 66%
6,000–7,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1316%
5,000–6,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1925%
4,000–5,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2625%
3,000–4,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 217%
2,000–3,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 69%

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 earlier than our model alone would say. This September has been running cool, 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 3 October to Sunday 4 October

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

Up at 6,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 13; down at 3,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 6. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

6,000–7,000 ftLeaves downpeak Sep 13
5,000–6,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 19
4,000–5,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 26
3,000–4,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 2
2,000–3,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 6

Where to drive: Mountain Loop Highway, about 29 miles · Sherman Pass Scenic Byway (Route 20), about 121 miles
What turns: bigleaf maple, vine maple, black cottonwood, red alder, willow

What turns, and when

bigleaf maple27%
vine maple22%
black cottonwood22%
red alder16%
willow11%
red-osier dogwood2%

Also named across Washington, outside what the canopy read measures here: Western Larch.

Vine maples turn scarlet in the Cascade understory, bigleaf maples go gold in the lowlands, and the western larches in the Okanogan and Wenatchee forests turn amber on the high slopes.

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 Washington