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 New River Gorge National Park and Preserve Fayette County holds most of the park and is still green today. Raleigh County, to the southwest, is 1 day behind. Summers County, to the south, is 2 days behind.By elevation The park runs from about 1,239 to 2,814 feet. That’s 7 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 19, the low ground holds until about Oct 26, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 1,500 to 2,000 foot band.
2,500–3,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 1926%
2,000–2,500 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2128%
1,500–2,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2331%
1,000–1,500 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2615%
SepOctNov
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.
See it now PhenoCam Network, Summit Bechtel Reserve camera, 10 km away, captured Sep 25.
That’s 4 days later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, which shifts peak color.
Set the days you can be here. Everything under them answers for those days, not for peak.
Wednesday 21 October to Thursday 22 October
You’ll find it just past peak up high, nearly peak lower down.
Up at 2,500 feet the stands peak around Oct 19; down at 1,500 feet they hold on until about Oct 26. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
2,500–3,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 19
2,000–2,500 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 21
1,500–2,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 23
1,000–1,500 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 26
Where to drive
Highland Scenic Highway (Route 150), about 58 miles · Route 39 (Goshen Pass), about 85 miles · Hocking Hills Scenic Byway (Route 374), about 135 miles
What turns
white oak, northern red oak, red maple, shagbark hickory, blackgum
What turns, and when
white oak30%
northern red oak23%
red maple19%
shagbark hickory11%
blackgum4%
tulip poplar4%
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
