Fall Foliage Map 2026
National outlook
Where the 2026 season stands
7 of the 7 destinations we track are inside their predicted peak-color window today, and 0 more open within a week.
Fall color crosses the country as a wave, not an event. It opens in the high, cold places — the northern Rockies and the spine of northern New England — and finishes six to eight weeks later in the southern river bottoms and along the Gulf. The median predicted peak this year is September 29, 2026, and the gap between the first location to peak and the last is about 9 days.
These are predicted peak dates built from years of satellite observations — not a same-day report of current color. We do not publish live condition reporting yet, and we would rather label that difference than blur it.
- Median predicted peak
- September 29, 2026
- Season opens
- September 17, 2026
- First peak → last peak
- Sep 24 – Oct 3
- Destinations tracked
- 7
- States covered
- 1
- Latest satellite pass
- September 25, 2026
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Where peak color is expected right now
Every destination below is inside its own predicted color window today, with its own confidence range.
- Kebler PassColoradoPeak around Sep 24Window Sep 18 – Sep 30 · ±6 days
- Kenosha Pass, ColoradoColoradoPeak around Sep 25Window Sep 17 – Oct 3 · ±8 days
- Maroon BellsColoradoPeak around Sep 26Window Sep 17 – Oct 5 · ±9 days
- McClure PassColoradoPeak around Sep 29Window Sep 23 – Oct 5 · ±6 days
- San Juan MountainsColoradoPeak around Sep 30Window Sep 20 – Oct 10 · ±9 days
- Phantom Canyon RoadColoradoPeak around Oct 1Window Sep 20 – Oct 12 · ±11 days
- TellurideColoradoPeak around Oct 3Window Sep 23 – Oct 13 · ±10 days
State by state
Peak fall color timing in every state we cover
Ordered by average predicted peak, earliest first — the color wave, read top to bottom. Each state page carries its own map and the destinations behind these numbers.
| State | Average peak | Range within the state | Dominant trees | Locations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colorado | October 9, 2026 | Sep 24 – Nov 25 | Aspen / Birch | 20 |
Methodology
How these dates are worked out
Peak timing comes from NASA MODIS MOD13Q1 vegetation indices. For each location we follow the seasonal vegetation-index curve back through the satellite record, find the day the canopy falls through a calibrated fraction of its seasonal amplitude, and average that across years. The drawdown threshold is calibrated against PhenoCam ground cameras, so the satellite's definition of “peak” is tied to something a person standing there would recognize.
7 of 704 locations publish a predicted date. The rest are withheld for one of two reasons, and neither is papered over with a national average — one flat date is a different place's answer wearing this location's name. Some have no usable observations at or near the site itself. Others have decades of observations but almost no broadleaf canopy, which means the seasonal signal there is snow and sun angle rather than leaves, and would read tens of days late.
Questions
Fall foliage 2026, answered
When is peak fall foliage in 2026?
Across the 7 destinations we track, the median predicted peak is September 29, 2026, 2026. Predicted peaks run from September 24, 2026 to October 3, 2026 — about 9 days from the first peak to the last.
How accurate is a predicted peak date?
Every prediction carries its own confidence range, shown on the destination page as a ± figure in days. That range is one standard deviation of the location's observed peak dates, so roughly two autumns in three fall inside it. Weather in any single year — an early hard frost, a warm wet October — moves real peak timing within that range.
Where does the data come from?
Peak timing is derived from NASA MODIS MOD13Q1 vegetation indices, with the definition of "peak" calibrated against PhenoCam ground cameras. 7 of 704 locations publish a predicted date; the rest are withheld — either no usable satellite history at the site, or no broadleaf canopy for the satellite to measure — rather than being handed a national average.
Is this a live report of current color?
No. These are predicted peak dates for 2026 built from a multi-year climatology, not same-day observations of current conditions. Live condition reporting is not published on this site yet, and we would rather say so than present a prediction as an observation.