October in Duck Creek Village averages 58 to 60F by day and 33F at night, with about a dozen freezing nights in the month. Snow reaches the village most Octobers and sticks in fewer than one year in four. Highway 14 stays open the whole month.
What Is the Weather Like in Duck Creek Village in October?
October in Duck Creek Village runs 58 to 60F by day and near 33F at night. Highs slide from the mid 60s in the first week to the mid 50s by Halloween. About a dozen nights in the month reach freezing, and the flat meadows along the creek run colder than that. Snow reaches the village in most Octobers and sticks on the ground in fewer than one year in four.
Highway 14 stays open the whole month, so October decides what you pack and what services you find, rather than whether you get up the mountain.
| October in Duck Creek Village | Number |
|---|---|
| Village elevation | 8,507 ft |
| Average daytime high | 58 to 60F |
| Average overnight low | 33 to 34F |
| Freezing nights per month | 12 to 13 of 31 |
| October precipitation | 1.5 in average, 0.1 to 4.6 in across 13 years |
| Snow on the ground at some point | 3 Octobers out of 13 |
The nearest working thermometer sits six miles from the village
Duck Creek Village has no working weather station. A Forest Service gauge called Duck Creek RS stood a mile and a half west of the inn at 8,566 feet, and it logged rain and snow from May 1934 to September 1936 before the record stops. It never once reported a temperature, and it never covered an October. Every October figure you read about this village borrows from somewhere else, and the borrowing goes unmentioned.
Three stations report from close enough in elevation to stand in, starting with the Assay fire weather station at 8,100 feet, six miles east. The Harris Flat snow telemetry site sits at 7,800 feet, five miles southeast. Panguitch Lake reports from 8,300 feet. Average their Octobers from 2013 through 2025 and the daytime numbers land within two degrees of each other, 58 to 60F. The nights split much wider.
October averages from NOAA 1991-2020 normals for the valley towns and from measured NRCS SNOTEL and RAWS station records for the mountain sites. Chart by Duck Creek Village Inn from public data.
Assay and Panguitch Lake both average 33 or 34 degrees at night and count about a dozen freezing nights in October. Harris Flat averages 26 degrees and counts 26 of them. That gap has nothing to do with altitude, because Harris Flat sits 300 to 500 feet lower than both. Cold air slides downhill after sunset and settles in flat ground, and Harris Flat is a meadow. So is a good share of the ground along Duck Creek. Pack for the colder figure, then enjoy being wrong.
The first freeze lands earlier than the calendar suggests
Most travelers plan an October trip around leaves and pack for a cool fall afternoon. The station records point somewhere else. At Assay, 8,100 feet, the median first freeze of the fall arrives on October 2, and in five of the last thirteen years it came in September. Down in the Harris Flat meadow the median falls on September 17.
Snow follows another rule. Flakes reach the village in most Octobers and melt by noon. An inch that stays on the ground is a November event in a normal year, and the earliest in the last thirteen was October 12.
| Cold and snow, measured at Harris Flat and Assay | Record |
|---|---|
| Median first fall freeze, 8,100 ft | October 2 |
| Median first fall freeze, meadow bottom | September 17 |
| Median first inch of snow on the ground | November 1 |
| Earliest inch of snow on the ground | October 12 |
| Warmest October day, 2013 to 2025 | 82F, October 1, 2024 |
| Coldest October night, 2013 to 2025 | minus 1.5F, October 30, 2019 |
Those last two rows sit thirteen months apart in the same month of the year, which is the honest answer to anyone asking for one number. Read how high Duck Creek Village sits and the spread stops looking strange.
Open and closed on Cedar Mountain through October
Weather closes services on this mountain long before it closes roads. The Duck Creek Visitor Center runs Memorial Day to Labor Day, so it stands dark for all of October. Cedar Breaks keeps its scenic drive open, and the Park Service shuts the visitor center there in mid-October and the campground in mid-September. The rim drive itself holds until the snow decides, which in the 2025-26 season meant January 2.
| Access in October | Status |
|---|---|
| Highway 14 up the mountain | Open, absent from UDOT’s seasonal road list |
| SR-148 through Cedar Breaks | Open, closes mid-November on average |
| Cedar Breaks visitor center | Closes mid-October |
| Cedar Breaks campground | Closed after mid-September |
| Duck Creek Visitor Center | Closed after Labor Day |
| Cedar Breaks entry fee | $25 per vehicle, 7 days |
Forest roads follow a third rule. The Cedar City Ranger District’s seasonal order closes named routes when a crew posts a standing Road Closed sign, and the sign goes up when wet ground starts to rut. Two of the listed routes leave the village itself: Sage Valley Road, and Duck Creek Motorized Trails 1 and 5 heading toward Uinta Flat Road. Riders who find a post across the road in mid October have not hit a calendar closure, they have hit a mud closure, and the fine for going around it reaches $5,000. October also overlaps hunting season on Cedar Mountain, so orange gets you seen on shared ground.
October takes an hour of daylight off your park day
Sunset moves fast this month. The mountain loses an hour and nine minutes of daylight between October 1 and October 31, and clocks fall back on November 1, which drops sunset another hour the day after Halloween.
| Daylight at Duck Creek Village | Sunrise to sunset |
|---|---|
| October 1 | 7:25am to 7:15pm, 11 h 49 m |
| October 15 | 7:38am to 6:54pm, 11 h 16 m |
| October 31 | 7:54am to 6:34pm, 10 h 40 m |
| November 1, clocks back | 6:55am to 5:33pm, 10 h 38 m |
That math bites on a Bryce or Zion day. A late-October return from the east side of Zion puts you on Highway 14 in the dark with deer on the road, so aim to be climbing the mountain by 5pm. Plan the leaf drives for the middle of the day and save the village for the evening, where dinner in Duck Creek Village sits five minutes from your door. Color timing runs on its own schedule, covered in the 2026 peak dates post.
October is the quietest good month on this mountain. If the numbers above sound like your kind of week, our cabins and rooms sit at 8,464 feet on Highway 14, with the aspens starting at the parking lot.
Quick answers about October in Duck Creek Village
How cold does it get in Duck Creek Village in October? Nights average 33 to 34F at village elevation, with about a dozen of the 31 nights at or below freezing. The coldest October night in the last thirteen years read minus 1.5F on October 30, 2019.
Does it snow in Duck Creek Village in October? Snow falls in most Octobers and melts the same day. An inch that stays on the ground happened in 3 of the last 13 Octobers, and the median date for the first lasting inch is November 1.
Is Highway 14 open in October? Yes. SR-14 does not appear on UDOT’s seasonal roads list, and SR-148 through Cedar Breaks does, so the road up the mountain carries traffic through the winter while the rim drive closes.
Can you still visit Cedar Breaks in October? Yes, the scenic drive holds until snow forces it shut, which averages mid-November. The visitor center closes in mid-October, and entry runs $25 per vehicle for seven days.
What should you pack for Duck Creek Village in October? A 25 degree swing between afternoon and dawn drives the list: a warm layer you can shed by 11am, a hat and gloves for the evening, and an ice scraper. Daytime highs near 59F feel warm in the sun and cold in the shade at this elevation.
