Fall Foliage in South Carolina: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Peak color in South Carolina typically runs October 28 to November 12. 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 October 15, starting with Blue Ridge Escarpment (Caesars Head, Table Rock) (late October – early November) and spreading across the state over the following weeks.

Most years the show is largely over by November 20. Midlands holds color latest (mid-November), and oak-dominated woods keep muted color for another week or two beyond the maples.

Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway (SC 11); US 276 through Caesars Head. Go midweek during the peak window if you can — the marquee routes draw serious weekend traffic at peak.

The palette here is built on oak, hickory, maple, sweetgum, sourwood. 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 October 28 to November 12 because Blue Ridge Escarpment (Caesars Head, Table Rock) (late October – early November) and Midlands (mid-November) are staggered — if you can move, South Carolina 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 Blue Ridge Escarpment (Caesars Head, Table Rock); too late, drop to Midlands. The color map on this page shows today's estimated status across the area you search.