Southern Utah Fall Colors 2026: Peak Dates From Cedar Breaks to Zion, and Where the Season Stands Now

Aspens on Cedar Mountain peak between September 25 and October 8 in a typical year, the Cedar Breaks rim a few days ahead of that, Cedar Canyon’s maples and oaks about ten days behind, and Zion’s cottonwoods in the last week of October into early November. As of September 6, 2026, the weather station above the village has not recorded a frost, so this year is running on a typical clock, or a few days late, and not an early one.

The dates below come from our peak tracker, which fits 22 dated observations from 2014 to 2025 against the first hard freeze at 9,830 feet. This post is the 2026 layer on top of it: what the mountain is doing right now, the actual weekends, and what lands on each one.

Fall color 2026, from the inn         Elevation      Typical peak        Drive
Cedar Breaks rim, SR-148              10,000-10,500  Sep 22 to Oct 3     20 min
Brian Head, SR-143                    9,800-11,300   Sep 20 to Oct 2     30 min
Navajo Lake, upper Highway 14         9,000-9,800    Sep 25 to Oct 6     15 min
Duck Creek Village, Aspen Mirror Lake 8,300-8,600    Sep 28 to Oct 8     walk
Strawberry Point road                 8,800-9,200    Sep 26 to Oct 7     30 min
Cedar Canyon, lower Highway 14        6,200-7,800    Oct 6 to Oct 18     20 min
Zion Canyon                           3,900-4,500    Oct 22 to Nov 8     80 min
First hard freeze, 9,830 ft           2003-2025 range Sep 1 to Oct 23    middle half Sep 13 to Oct 1
2026 frost so far                     none through Sep 5

Where the 2026 season stands on September 6

Two things decide when the high country turns: day length, which is the same every year, and cold nights, which are not. Day length starts the change, and it is why single trees at the top of the mountain are flashing yellow this week already. Cold finishes it, and the record on the tracker shows why. Every year since 2014 the rim has gone past peak within about a week of the first hard freeze at Midway Valley. It has never held color through one.

That station sits at 9,830 feet on upper Highway 14. From August 15 through September 5 it did not log a single night at or below freezing. The coldest was 37.8 degrees on August 16. The first week of September brought a cool, wet stretch with daytime highs in the upper 50s, then the forecast warms back into the 70s by September 9 with overnight lows in the mid 40s to mid 50s through at least September 20. No frost shows anywhere in that forecast.

Read that as a normal year, maybe a few days late. If the first hard freeze lands in its usual window, September 13 to October 1, the rim peaks in the last ten days of September and the village around October 1. If the freeze holds off into October, the whole schedule slides a week later and the village peaks in the first week of October instead.

One thing to watch. July 2026 was the second warmest on record for Utah and most of the state spent the summer in drought, with monsoon relief that came in isolated storms rather than steady soaking. Drought-stressed aspen can yellow early and drop without much of a show, so some groves may go brown at the edges rather than gold. Yellow comes from pigments that sit in the leaf all summer, so even a stressed year still turns. Reds are the part that drought takes away, and red aspen is rare on this mountain in any year.

We update the tracker as the frost record comes in, and the Cedar City tourism bureau publishes a color report every week from September 15. Between the two, plus the UDOT cameras at the summit, Navajo Lake and the village, you can see the leaves before you drive.

The 2026 calendar, weekend by weekend

Weekend          Where the color is                    What else lands on it
Sep 12 to 13     Rim starting, village green           Oktoberfest at Brian Head, 1:30 PM
Sep 19 to 20     Rim turning to early peak             Last Brian Head chairlift day Sep 20; Oktoberfest;
                                                       Cedar Breaks fee free day Thu Sep 17
Sep 26 to 27     Rim at peak, village turning fast     Fall Colors Fest opens Sep 26; muzzleloader deer Sep 23 to Oct 1
Oct 3 to 4       Village, Navajo Lake, Strawberry Pt   Fall Colors Fest closes Oct 3; rifle elk opens Oct 3
                 at peak; rim going past
Oct 10 to 11     Village past peak, Cedar Canyon reds  Cedar Breaks visitor center closes about now
Oct 17 to 18     Cedar Canyon peak, mountain bare      Rifle deer Oct 17 to 25, busiest forest weekend of the fall
Oct 24 to 25     Cedar City valleys, Kolob             Livestock Festival Oct 23 to 25; sheep parade Sat 10 AM;
                                                       Zion shuttle last bus moves to 6:15 PM Oct 25
Oct 31 to Nov 1  Zion Canyon cottonwoods               Cedar Breaks fee free day Tue Oct 27

The village lists the Fall Colors Fest for September 26 through October 3. The organizers have not published times or a venue yet, so treat it as a reason the village will be busy, not a schedule to plan around. The Cedar Livestock and Heritage Festival is the opposite: a published schedule, free entry, and a sheep parade down Main Street at 10 on Saturday is worth the drive down the canyon on its own.

Pick your weekend by what you want

The rim and the amphitheater together. September 26 to 27. Cedar Breaks is at peak, the aspens along SR-148 are gold against the pink rock, and the village below is turning. The visitor center is still open. Go for the last hour of light at Sunset View or Point Supreme, the amphitheater faces west and the glow runs 15 to 30 minutes past sunset. Cedar Breaks guide.

Color at the door. October 3 to 4. Walk to the pond, drive five minutes to Aspen Mirror Lake before 9 AM for the reflection, take the paved road around Navajo Lake, and finish at Strawberry Point for sunset with the aspens behind you. Everything within 30 minutes is at or near peak. This is the weekend we would book.

Reds. October 10 to 18. The high aspens are done and the show moves down Highway 14 into Cedar Canyon, where bigtooth maple and Gambel oak turn orange and rust between Woods Ranch and the canyon mouth. Fewer people, cooler nights, and the first snow at the summit is possible. The seven fall drives on the tracker rank every road by color per mile.

Zion, after the crowds. October 24 to November 8. The mountain is bare, the cottonwoods along the Virgin River are gold, and the shuttle line is a fraction of summer. Stay up here for the mountain nights and drive down for the day.

Two nights, one plan

This is the plan we give guests who ask for peak and have a weekend, built around the first weekend of October in a normal year. If the freeze comes early, move it up a week.

Friday. Arrive by mid afternoon up Highway 14 from Cedar City. Stop at Zion Overlook near milepost 17 and the Navajo Lake overlook at milepost 24, both on the way. Check in, walk to the pond for the last light.

Saturday. Aspen Mirror Lake at 8 AM, half a mile in, still water. Breakfast in the village. Drive west to Cedar Breaks, walk the Alpine Pond loop from Chessmen Ridge (2.2 miles, mixed aspen on the lower half), then north on SR-143 through Brian Head to Sydney Valley at milepost 24, the reddest grove on the mountain, and back. Sunset from Strawberry Point, 7 miles of gravel off Highway 14, passenger car fine when dry, and no railings at the edge.

Sunday. Take Cedar Canyon at half speed on the way out. Woods Ranch has picnic tables and restrooms, and the maples below it are just starting.

Fuel up at the one station in the village before Saturday. Cedar Breaks takes cards only and has no drinking water this season, so carry your own.

Aspen Mirror Lake, five minutes from the inn. Aspen ring the whole shoreline, and the reflection is why you go before 9 AM.

What is different this fall

Hunting overlaps peak. Muzzleloader deer runs September 23 to October 1, rifle elk October 3 to 16, and rifle deer October 17 to 25, all on the national forest around the village. Trails stay open. Wear something orange on the forest roads, expect trucks at every pullout on the rifle weekends, and read our hunting season post for the map. Cedar Breaks itself is a national monument and is not hunted.

Cedar Breaks has no water and no campfires. Stage 2 fire restrictions took effect June 26 and the monument still listed a drinking water outage on September 2. The visitor center closes for the season in mid October, last year on October 11, but SR-148 and every overlook stay open until the first big snow, late November in most years.

SR-143 has a pilot car on weekdays. UDOT set a September 2026 finish for its paving project through Brian Head and toward Panguitch Lake, with flagging Monday through Friday, 7 to 7, and delays up to 15 minutes. Weekends run without flagging. For Highway 14 itself, check road conditions the morning you leave. The first snow that sticks comes in late October or November most years and lands on the summit at milepost 17 first.

The Brian Head chairlift stops September 20. That is just as the rim starts to turn, so a lift ride is a first-weekend-of-color thing, not a peak thing. Fridays through Sundays only in September.

Zion’s shuttle shortens on October 25. Through October 24 the last bus leaves the Temple of Sinawava at 7:15 PM; from October 25 it is 6:15 PM. Private cars stay out of the scenic drive through November 28.

Photographing it

Aspen wants backlight. Put a low sun behind the grove in the first or last hour of direct light and the leaves glow; at noon they go flat. Overcast days saturate the yellow and kill the trunk shadows, which is fine for the groves and bad for the amphitheater. Cedar Breaks faces west, so it is a sunset place, not a sunrise one, and the color on the rock keeps building for half an hour after the sun drops. The monument bans drones, and so does the Ashdown Gorge Wilderness below it. On the forest they are legal outside wilderness and away from wildlife.

Quick answers

When do the leaves change in southern Utah? High country aspens turn from mid September and peak in the last week of September through the first week of October. Canyon maples and oaks peak in mid October. Valley cottonwoods and Zion peak in late October into early November.

When is peak fall color at Cedar Breaks in 2026? Typical peak on the rim is September 22 to October 3. With no frost on the record at 9,830 feet through September 5, expect the normal window or a few days late, so the last weekend of September is the safe bet.

When do the aspens peak at Duck Creek Village? September 28 to October 8 in a typical year, with our own peak photos dated October 1. The first weekend of October is the one to book.

Is Highway 14 open for fall colors? Yes. It is a paved, plowed state highway that stays open year round. The first snow that sticks arrives in late October or November at the summit in most years. Check the cameras before you drive.

Does Cedar Breaks charge in the fall? $25 per vehicle, cards only, for seven days. It is free on September 17 and October 27, 2026. SR-148 stays open after the visitor center closes in mid October.

Where can I check the leaves before I drive? Our tracker, the UDOT live cameras at the summit, Navajo Lake and the village, and the Cedar City color report, updated every week from September 15.

The last week of September and the first week of October are the two weeks the mountain sells out. See the rooms and cabins and book the window, then watch the tracker for the day.