Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

Our beautiful summer will soon give way to fall, and as we bundle up in sweaters and scarves, our thoughts now turn to the changing colors of the season.

Some deciduous trees are already beginning to turn, but when will peak fall color come to Oregon this year?

The exact timing depends largely upon temperature and rainfall, and varies for different parts of our ecologically-diverse state, but this year peak color should arrive between the beginning and middle of October.

That's according to the 2019 Fall Foliage Prediction Map, a nationwide tool developed by SmokyMountains.com, a website designed to promote tourism in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina.



According to the map, which shows changing conditions on a weekly basis, the foliage will begin to peak in the Portland area and the northeast corner of Oregon by Oct. 5, followed by the coastal and northern parts of the state by Oct. 12, with central and eastern Oregon peaking between October 19 and 26.

The Smoky Mountains are better known for fall foliage than the Pacific Northwest, but there happen to be plenty of great places to catch the turning leaves in Oregon.

READ MORE: 15 beautiful places to see fall color in Oregon

Don't Edit

Courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service

A kayaker paddles down the Deschutes River during autumn.

Don't Edit

Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

Yellow maple leaves frame South Falls at Silver Falls State Park.

Don't Edit

Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

Fall color fills a canyon on Steens Mountain in southeast Oregon.

Don't Edit

While most abundant in urban areas, deciduous trees make up about 10 percent of Oregon's 30 million acres of forest, according to data from the U.S. Forest Service. That includes huge stands of oak and red alder, significant populations of maple and the coniferous western larch, and stray patches of aspen, ash and cottonwood.

The Willamette Valley is perhaps the place to catch fall color, where deciduous trees fill cities and suburbs, as well as natural areas like Silver Falls State Park in Silverton and Forest Park in Portland.

But you can also find fall foliage in more unexpected places, like the canyons of Steens Mountain in the far corner of southeast Oregon, or the forests of aspen at Upper Klamath Lake in southern Oregon.

--Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service

Trees begin to turn for fall at Dillon Falls on the Deschutes River.

Don't Edit

Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

The sun illuminates bright yellow larch trees, cast against grey fog on a fall afternoon in the Mount Hood National Forest.

Don't Edit

Courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service

The Fremont-Winema National Forest near Klamath Falls in southern Oregon shows off beautiful fall colors.