When is peak fall color at North Cascades National Park?

Our forecast puts peak color at North Cascades National Park around 29 Sep. The four days to aim for are 28 Sep to 1 Oct. We publish our error rate.

North Cascades National Park Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at North Cascades 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 color, most of the stand29 SepAim for 28 Sep to 1 Oct

In the park today, Sep 25Nearly peak

bigleaf maple and vine maple

willow and black cottonwood, peak Sep 17

Peak color should arrive around 17 Sep for the willow and black cottonwood, and around 8 Oct for the bigleaf maple and vine 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 North Cascades National Park Skagit County holds most of the park and is nearly peak today. Whatcom County, to the west, is 1 day ahead. Chelan County, to the southeast, is 4 days behind.

By elevation The park runs from about 2,043 to 6,766 feet. That’s 23 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 12, the low ground holds until about Sep 28, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 1,000 to 2,000 foot band.

6,000–7,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 1213%
5,000–6,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1825%
4,000–5,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2424%
3,000–4,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 118%
2,000–3,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 512%
1,000–2,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 285%

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.

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

The place

More than 300 glaciers packed into some of the most violent topography in the Lower 48. North Cascades is what the Alps would look like if nobody built ski resorts on them. Peaks go from valley floor to summit in vertical miles, not horizontal ones, and getting deep into the backcountry requires actual effort.

Established 1968. About 1 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

Monday 28 September to Tuesday 29 September

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

Up at 6,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 12; down at 3,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 5. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

6,000–7,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 12
5,000–6,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 18
4,000–5,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 24
3,000–4,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 1
2,000–3,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 5

Where to drive: Mountain Loop Highway, about 49 miles · Sherman Pass Scenic Byway (Route 20), about 126 miles
What turns: bigleaf maple, willow, vine maple, black cottonwood, red alder
Entrance: No entrance fee

What turns, and when

bigleaf maple24%
willow22%
vine maple21%
black cottonwood17%
red alder13%
narrowleaf cottonwood3%

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