When is peak fall color at Bluestone National Scenic River?

Our forecast puts peak color at Bluestone National Scenic River around 24 Oct. The four days to aim for are 23 to 26 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Bluestone National Scenic River Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Bluestone National Scenic River?

Sugar Maple, Red Maple, Red Oak, Tulip Poplar, American Beech. West Virginia is almost entirely forested, and when the sugar maples, oaks, and tulip poplars turn, the entire state becomes a continuous canopy of orange, gold, burgundy, and bronze.

Peak color24 OctAim for 23 to 26 Oct

In the river today, Sep 25Still green

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 Bluestone National Scenic River Nearly all of the river is in Summers County, which is still green today.

By elevation The river runs from about 1,443 to 2,340 feet. That’s 4 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 23, the low ground holds until about Oct 27, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 2,000 to 2,250 foot band.

2,250–2,500 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2312%
2,000–2,250 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2419%
1,750–2,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2524%
1,500–1,750 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2629%
1,250–1,500 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2716%

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

Today from the NEON.D07.MLBS.DP1.00033 camera, 6 km from Bluestone National Scenic River — See it now PhenoCam Network, Mountain Lake Biological Station camera, 6 km away, captured Sep 25.

That’s 5 days later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, 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 23 October to Saturday 24 October

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

Up at 2,250 feet the stands peak around Oct 23; down at 1,500 feet they hold on until about Oct 27. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

2,250–2,500 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 23
2,000–2,250 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 24
1,750–2,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 25
1,500–1,750 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 26
1,250–1,500 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 27

Where to drive: Highland Scenic Highway (Route 150), about 69 miles · Route 39 (Goshen Pass), about 86 miles · Blue Ridge Parkway (NC Section), about 140 miles
What turns: white oak, northern red oak, red maple, shagbark hickory, blackgum

What turns, and when

white oak30%
northern red oak20%
red maple20%
shagbark hickory10%
blackgum5%
tulip poplar5%

Also named across West Virginia, outside what the canopy read measures here: Sugar Maple, American Beech.

West Virginia is almost entirely forested, and when the sugar maples, oaks, and tulip poplars turn, the entire state becomes a continuous canopy of orange, gold, burgundy, and bronze.

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. We score it here against 16 long-running forest cameras: two dates in three land within 7 days of the camera’s own peak. How this map is made

All of West Virginia