When is peak fall color at Mount Baker National Recreation Area?

Our forecast puts peak color at Mount Baker National Recreation Area around 3 Oct. The four days to aim for are 2 to 5 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Mount Baker National Recreation Area Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Mount Baker National Recreation Area?

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 stand3 OctAim for 2 to 5 Oct

In the recreation area today, Sep 25Nearly peak

black cottonwood and willow

bigleaf maple, peak Oct 8

Peak color should arrive around 29 Sep for the black cottonwood and willow, and around 8 Oct for the bigleaf maple.

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

2 reports came in from Whatcom County this week, 1 of them just starting and 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 Mount Baker National Recreation Area Nearly all of the recreation area is in Whatcom County, which is nearly peak today.

By elevation The recreation area runs from about 2,860 to 8,880 feet. That’s 39 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Aug 24, the low ground holds until about Oct 2, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 2,000 to 4,000 foot band.

8,000–10,000 ftLeaves downpeak Aug 248%
6,000–8,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 811%
4,000–6,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2242%
2,000–4,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 239%

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 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

Friday 2 October to Saturday 3 October

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

Up at 6,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 8; down at 4,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 2. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

6,000–8,000 ftLeaves downpeak Sep 8
4,000–6,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 22
2,000–4,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 2

Where to drive: Mountain Loop Highway, about 47 miles
What turns: black cottonwood, willow, bigleaf maple, red alder, vine maple

What turns, and when

black cottonwood26%
willow21%
bigleaf maple21%
red alder16%
vine maple11%
red-osier dogwood5%

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