National Park·Idaho, Montana, Wyoming·2,199,453 acres
Yellowstone National Park
Forecast issued 25 Sep, 5:21pm ET
Peak color25 SepAim for 24 to 27 Sep
In the park today, Sep 25Peak color
Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
Weather Hard frost Tuesday night. Peak may come early and go fast.
1 report came in from Park County this week, 1 of them just starting. Our date held. See the county on the map.
Still greenStartingNearly peakPeakPast peakNo fall canopy we forecastInside the line, each band of elevation is painted on its own date.
Around Yellowstone National Park Park County holds most of the park and is just past peak today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 3 days earlier than the park’s own stands: the park is peak color. Park County, to the north, is 8 days behind. Gallatin County, to the northwest, is 1 day behind.By elevation The park runs from about 6,585 to 9,371 feet. That’s 19 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 7, the low ground holds until about Sep 26, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 6,000 to 7,000 foot band.
9,000–10,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 712%
8,000–9,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1342%
7,000–8,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1835%
6,000–7,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2611%
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 National Park Service, East Entrance - Out of Park webcam, inside the park, captured Sep 25.
That’s 1 day later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, which shifts peak color.
The place
The first national park on earth sits on top of one of the largest active supervolcanoes on the planet, which is exactly the kind of decision you would expect from 1872. Over 10,000 geothermal features, hot springs, geysers, fumaroles, and mud pots, all powered by a magma chamber that starts about 5 miles below your feet. Yellowstone is the place where the ground itself is alive and actively reminding you of that fact.
Established 1872. About 4.9 million/year visitors.
Set the days you can be here. Everything under them answers for those days, not for peak.
Thursday 24 September to Friday 25 September
You’ll find it fading up high, peak color lower down.
Up at 9,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 7; down at 7,000 feet they hold on until about Sep 26. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
9,000–10,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 7
8,000–9,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 13
7,000–8,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 18
6,000–7,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 26
Where to drive
Chief Joseph Scenic Byway (WY 296), about 53 miles · Teton Park Road, about 59 miles · Beartooth Highway (US 212), about 63 miles
What turns
narrowleaf cottonwood, quaking aspen, willow, water birch, thinleaf alder
Entrance
$35
What turns, and when
narrowleaf cottonwood33%
quaking aspen26%
willow22%
water birch11%
thinleaf alder8%
Every one of these turns yellow or gold here. The shades only tell the species apart.
Also named across Wyoming, outside what the canopy read measures here: Rocky Mountain Maple.
The Tetons rising above the golden cottonwoods of the Snake River flats is one of the most famous fall landscapes in the American West, and the aspen groves at elevation add hillsides of gold.
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. Out here we score it against NASA's satellite record of when the canopy shuts down, read inside each unit’s own boundary: two dates in three land within 12 days of it. How this map is made
