When is peak fall color at Mount Rainier National Park?

Our forecast puts peak color at Mount Rainier National Park around 5 Oct. The four days to aim for are 4 to 7 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Mount Rainier National Park Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Mount Rainier National Park?

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 color5 OctAim for 4 to 7 Oct

In the park today, Sep 25Starting to turn

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

Weather Wind to 51 mph Friday. Color may come down before it turns.

Weather Hard frost Saturday night. Peak may come early and go fast.

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 Rainier National Park Pierce County holds most of the park and is starting to turn today. Lewis County, to the southwest, is 2 days behind. Yakima County, to the east, is 4 days behind.

By elevation The park runs from about 2,407 to 7,880 feet. That’s 46 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Aug 25, the low ground holds until about Oct 10, 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 255%
6,000–8,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1611%
4,000–6,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 2748%
2,000–4,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1037%

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

Today from the nps-mora-visitor-center camera, inside Mount Rainier National Park — See it now National Park Service, Visitor Center webcam, inside the park, captured Sep 25.

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

The place

Rainier is a 14,411-foot stratovolcano carrying 26 named glaciers, the most glaciated peak in the Lower 48. On a clear day it dominates the Seattle skyline from 60 miles away. The fifth national park, established in 1899, and still the one that makes you pull over on I-5.

Established 1899. About 2.3 million/year visitors.

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

Sunday 4 October to Monday 5 October

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

Up at 6,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 16; down at 4,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 10. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

6,000–8,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 16
4,000–6,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 27
2,000–4,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 10

Where to drive: Mountain Loop Highway, about 82 miles · Historic Columbia River Highway, about 90 miles
What turns: bigleaf maple, black cottonwood, red alder, vine maple, willow
Entrance: $30

What turns, and when

bigleaf maple25%
black cottonwood24%
red alder17%
vine maple16%
willow14%
red-osier dogwood4%

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