When is peak fall color at Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway?

Our forecast puts peak color at Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway around 6 Oct. The four days to aim for are 5 to 8 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway?

Sugar Maple, Red Maple, Quaking Aspen, Paper Birch, Red Oak. Wisconsin's Northwoods produce vivid sugar maple orange against birch gold and the dark green of hemlock and spruce, while the Mississippi River bluffs add a warm oak-and-hickory palette.

Peak color6 OctAim for 5 to 8 Oct

In the river today, Sep 25Starting to turn

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 Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway Burnett County holds most of the river and is starting to turn today. Pine County, to the northwest, is 1 day ahead. Washburn County, to the east, is 1 day ahead.

By elevation The river runs from about 830 to 1,398 feet. That’s 2 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 5, the low ground holds until about Oct 7, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 1,000 to 1,250 foot band.

1,250–1,500 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 521%
1,000–1,250 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 643%
750–1,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 737%

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.

That’s 2 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

Monday 5 October to Tuesday 6 October

You’ll find it peak color.

That's the day our forecast puts peak color here.

1,250–1,500 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 5
1,000–1,250 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 6
750–1,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 7

What turns: sugar maple, red maple, paper birch, quaking aspen, yellow birch

What turns, and when

sugar maple26%
red maple22%
paper birch17%
quaking aspen9%
yellow birch8%
American beech8%

Also named across Wisconsin, outside what the canopy read measures here: Red Oak.

Wisconsin's Northwoods produce vivid sugar maple orange against birch gold and the dark green of hemlock and spruce, while the Mississippi River bluffs add a warm oak-and-hickory palette.

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 13 long-running forest cameras: two dates in three land within 9 days of the camera’s own peak. How this map is made

All of Wisconsin