When is peak fall color at Cranberry Wilderness?

Our forecast puts peak color at Cranberry Wilderness around 14 Oct. The four days to aim for are 13 to 16 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Cranberry Wilderness Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Cranberry Wilderness?

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 color14 OctAim for 13 to 16 Oct

In the wilderness today, Sep 25Starting to turn

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 Cranberry Wilderness Pocahontas County holds most of the wilderness and is starting to turn today. Webster County, to the north, is 4 days behind.

By elevation The wilderness runs from about 2,740 to 4,248 feet. That’s 7 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 11, the low ground holds until about Oct 18, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 3,000 to 3,500 foot band.

4,000–4,500 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1115%
3,500–4,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1341%
3,000–3,500 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1531%
2,500–3,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 1812%

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

That’s 4 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

Tuesday 13 October to Wednesday 14 October

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

Up at 4,000 feet the stands peak around Oct 11; down at 3,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 18. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

4,000–4,500 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 11
3,500–4,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 13
3,000–3,500 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 15
2,500–3,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 18

Where to drive: Highland Scenic Highway (Route 150), about 12 miles · Route 39 (Goshen Pass), about 54 miles · Skyline Drive, about 105 miles
What turns: red maple, northern red oak, white oak, sugar maple, blackgum

What turns, and when

red maple27%
northern red oak14%
white oak12%
sugar maple11%
blackgum10%
tulip poplar10%

Also named across West Virginia, outside what the canopy read measures here: 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