fall colours 2018

When will fall colours peak in Toronto for 2018?

The leaves may still be green right now, but before you know it, Toronto's vast canopy of trees will have taken on the warm hues that fall foliage tourists go gaga for—and soon after that they'll be crunchy brown things on the ground that are a pain to rake up. 

You can take advantage of this fleeting transition from a humid summer to what's being forecasted as a very frosty upcoming winter by keeping tab on our city's top spots for fall foliage viewing, which will likely start to see some major colour changes within the next two to three weeks. 

When exactly those autumnal reds and oranges will peak however, is hard to say, depending on the region and whether or not these fall nights stay cool enough to make the leaves turn.

For tracking popular arborous destinations outside of the city like Bronte Creek or Sibbald Point, the best move is to check out the Ontario Parks fall colour reports, which give up-to-date info on what Mother Nature's been up to colour palette-wise. 

Areas north of Toronto like Forks of the Credit Provincial Park have seen a 10 per cent change in colour, meaning the trees along the Meadow Trail will be looking a lot less luscious these days until they jazz up again.

Same goes for the trees by the Viewing Platform at Mono Cliffs, and at Darlington, where leaves are reported to actually be falling already.

But the greatest change in Ontario so far has been the mecca of fall colour admirers, Algonquin Park, whose dominant tones are still green but whose leaves have already seen a 20 percent change near West Gate, which will probably be jam-packed with tourists by the end of October.

Anyone not intending on traveling far to watch the trees do their thing can stick to keeping an eye on the Ontario Parks report, and maybe popping by anywhere along the Don Valley within the next month or so, to catch the colours before they're gone.

Lead photo by

Julia Nathanson at Trinity Bellwooods


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