10/11/2026
Where's the color showing in NC now?
🍁 NC leaves are turning—but where should you go THIS week?
October 11 fall color update: Here’s where color has been reported, followed by the places to watch next.
📍 COLOR REPORTED NOW
🍂 Grandfather Mountain: Color around the Swinging Bridge and park-road switchbacks, plus splashes along the Parkway near Stack Rock Creek Bridge. Daily photo updates run through October 10.
🍂 Rough Ridge / Linn Cove Viaduct: Burgundy, yellow and green across the slopes, with color developing below the viaduct.
🍂 Flat Rock Trail near Linville: Yellow birches and Fraser magnolias reaching peak locally—not the entire surrounding forest.
🍂 Graveyard Fields: Reds, oranges, copper and gold spreading across the meadows and surrounding slopes.
🍂 Black Balsam: Rusty orange grasses and bracken, with color developing on surrounding mountainsides.
🍂 Linville Falls / Little Switzerland: Scattered reds and golds among green. Nearby Linville Gorge is beginning to color, too.
🍂 Blowing Rock: Colorful individual trees around downtown, Shull’s Mill Road and nearby overlooks, while much of the background remains green.
⏭️ WHERE TO WATCH FOR PEAK NEXT
🍁 Coming week / October 16–18: Howard Neufeld expects October 16–18 to be closer to peak in the mountain areas covered by his latest report. Watch Rough Ridge and nearby higher slopes, plus the mountains around Max Patch and Devil’s Courthouse.
🍁 Devil’s Courthouse toward Waterrock K**b: Observers reported increasing orange and expected peak another week or two beyond their early-October visits.
🍁 Mid-to-late October: Watch mid-elevation slopes around Waynesville, Maggie Valley, Cherokee, Highlands and Cashiers. Valleys and downtowns can run behind the mountains around them.
🍁 Late October: Asheville’s city peak is currently expected in the last week of the month.
🍁 Late October into early November: The foothills and Piedmont generally follow—think Charlotte, the Triad and the Triangle.
🍁 Early-to-mid November: The Coastal Plain generally gets its turn later.
Still seeing green where you live? Your fall show can still be ahead. One colorful tree doesn’t mean the whole area is at peak.
Save this for planning, and check fresh weather and road conditions before heading out. Wind can change the display quickly.
Where have YOU spotted color?
Tell us the place and the date—or share a photo! 📸
Sources: Grandfather Mountain’s daily reports through Oct. 10; Explore Asheville’s week-of-Oct. 5 report; Blowing Rock’s Oct. 6 update; Destination McDowell’s Oct. 8 report; Visit Smokies and NC State’s seasonal guidance. Prepared from information available Oct. 10. Reported color and expected peak timing are different; forecasts can change.
