Fall Foliage in New Hampshire: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Peak color in New Hampshire typically runs September 28 to October 14. Exact timing shifts one to two weeks year to year — a warm, wet autumn pushes peak later, while drought stress or an early hard frost accelerates it.

Color usually becomes noticeable around September 18, starting with Great North Woods & White Mountains (late September – early October) and spreading across the state over the following weeks.

Most years the show is largely over by October 24. Monadnock & Seacoast holds color latest (mid-October), and oak-dominated woods keep muted color for another week or two beyond the maples.

Kancamagus Highway (Route 112); Crawford Notch, Route 302; Route 3 through Franconia Notch. Go midweek during the peak window if you can — the marquee routes draw serious weekend traffic at peak.

The palette here is built on sugar maple, red maple, yellow birch, beech. Reds and oranges come from anthocyanins that sugar maples and red maples manufacture in sunny, cool-night weather; the yellows in birch and aspen are carotenoids that were in the leaf all summer, unmasked when chlorophyll breaks down.

The recipe for a great year is a moist growing season followed by a sunny September of warm days and cool — not freezing — nights. Watch late-summer drought maps: stressed trees turn early and dull. The windows on this page are the reliable planning anchor either way.

In any single spot, expect 5–10 good days. Statewide, the window runs September 28 to October 14 because Great North Woods & White Mountains (late September – early October) and Monadnock & Seacoast (mid-October) are staggered — if you can move, New Hampshire gives you weeks of peak somewhere.

Chase the stagger: earlier terrain has already peaked, later terrain hasn't yet. Arrive too early and head for Great North Woods & White Mountains; too late, drop to Monadnock & Seacoast. The color map on this page shows today's estimated status across the area you search.