When is peak fall color at Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area?

Our forecast puts peak color at Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area around 16 Oct. The four days to aim for are 15 to 18 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area?

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 color16 OctAim for 15 to 18 Oct

In the recreation area 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 Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area Pendleton County holds most of the recreation area and is still green today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 1 day later than the recreation area’s own stands: the recreation area is starting to turn. Grant County, to the northeast, is 2 days behind. Randolph County, to the west, is 2 days ahead.

By elevation The recreation area runs from about 1,279 to 4,040 feet. That’s 13 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 9, the low ground holds until about Oct 22, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 2,000 to 3,000 foot band.

4,000–5,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 95%
3,000–4,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1319%
2,000–3,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 1838%
1,000–2,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 2238%

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

Thursday 15 October to Friday 16 October

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

Up at 3,000 feet the stands peak around Oct 13; down at 2,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 22. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

3,000–4,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 13
2,000–3,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 18
1,000–2,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 22

Where to drive: Skyline Drive, about 55 miles · Highland Scenic Highway (Route 150), about 56 miles · Route 39 (Goshen Pass), about 65 miles
What turns: northern red oak, white oak, red maple, shagbark hickory, sugar maple

What turns, and when

northern red oak28%
white oak25%
red maple21%
shagbark hickory14%
sugar maple5%
blackgum4%

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

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