When is peak fall color at Olympic National Forest?

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

Olympic National Forest Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Olympic National Forest?

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 forest today, Sep 25Starting to turn

bigleaf maple and vine maple

black cottonwood and willow, peak Sep 16

Peak color should arrive around 16 Sep for the black cottonwood and willow, and around 9 Oct for the bigleaf maple and vine maple.

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.

Still greenStartingNearly peakPeakPast peakNo fall canopy we forecastInside the line, each band of elevation is painted on its own date.

Around Olympic National Forest Clallam County holds most of the forest and is starting to turn today. Grays Harbor County, to the south, is 3 days behind. Jefferson County, to the north, is 1 day behind.

By elevation The forest runs from about 137 to 3,811 feet. That’s 10 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 25, the low ground holds until about Oct 5, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 0 to 1,000 foot band.

4,000–5,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 254%
3,000–4,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 55%
2,000–3,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 811%
1,000–2,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 327%
0–1,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 553%

Height off 3DEP inside the forest’s own boundary; each band carries the date our model gives that elevation, corrections and all. The percentage is how much of the forest 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 nearly peak up high, peak color lower down.

Up at 2,000 feet the stands peak around Oct 8; down at 1,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 5. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

2,000–3,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 8
1,000–2,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 3
0–1,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 5

Where to drive: Mountain Loop Highway, about 93 miles
What turns: bigleaf maple, vine maple, black cottonwood, red alder, willow

What turns, and when

bigleaf maple30%
vine maple25%
black cottonwood20%
red alder17%
willow5%
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