When do the leaves change in Nashville?
Nashville backs up against real wooded hills. Radnor Lake's forested bowl is the city's autumn heart, the ridgeline trails of Percy Warner Park roll through miles of hardwoods, and the Natchez Trace Parkway begins its long, leafy run just southwest of town. Cheekwood's gardens add a manicured version of the same show.
Peak: November 1–November 5
Color builds from October 26 · mostly bare by November 26
Sampled at Nashville’s own coordinates rather than a regional average. Dates are computed for Nashville itself at 159 m elevation. Street trees vary block to block, so check locally before you plan a weekend around it.
This window comes from 19 weather points across Tennessee, nudged 1 day earlier to match 1 published peak date from smokymountains.com. Against Tennessee's own climatology, the 2026 weather puts the peak 7 days earlier. Across Tennessee the first place to turn and the last sit about 5 days apart. How the forecast works
Fall activities in Nashville
Drag the date slider to see when color moves through the country around Nashville, or tap a pin for that stop’s own peak window.
Tennessee
37 miPeak November 2
Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Cades Cove turn sugar maple, tulip poplar, and sourwood in a slow cascade from ridge to valley, with the higher Smokies peaking in mid-October.
Kentucky
124 miPeak October 24
Sandstone cliffs and arches at Red River Gorge and Cumberland Falls frame sugar maple, sassafras, and oak-hickory color across the Daniel Boone National Forest, typically peaking in mid-to-late October.
Alabama
232 miPeak November 16
Cheaha State Park and Little River Canyon on Alabama's southern Appalachian foothills turn oak, hickory, and sweetgum by late October, with milder color continuing into November across the rest of the state.
Indiana
268 miPeak October 18
Brown County State Park and the Hoosier National Forest turn sugar maple, oak-hickory, and sweetgum into a patchwork of red and gold across Indiana's forested hill country by mid-to-late October.
Mississippi
288 miPeak November 17
Foliage is subtle here: sweetgum, hickory, and bald cypress along the Natchez Trace Parkway and Delta bottomlands turn bronze and rust rather than blazing red, with color lingering into late November.
Where locals go
Things to do in fall in Nashville
Orchards, cider, haunts, and harvest season. These are the iconic fall stops within a day trip of Nashville.
Boo at the Zoo (Nashville Zoo)
Fall festivalColor nearby peaks November 3
Nashville Zoo strings its paths with pumpkins and fall scenery for Boo at the Zoo, a trick-or-treat and costume event built for younger…
Nashville Nightmare
Haunted attractionColor nearby peaks November 2
Nashville's biggest haunted house packs four separate walk-through scares under one roof in Madison, from a twisted fairy-tale maze to a…
Nashville Fall Festival
Fall festivalColor nearby peaks November 3
A working farm on the west side of Nashville turns into a full fall carnival each year, with a corn maze, a sunflower field left over from…
Honeysuckle Hill Farm
Corn mazeColor nearby peaks November 2
Half an hour north of Nashville, this Robertson County farm runs a cut corn maze alongside a pumpkin patch, pig races, a pumpkin cannon and…
Orchard
Color nearby peaks November 3
A second-generation family orchard south of Nashville that presses its own award-winning hard cider and runs tastings and orchard tours…
in Tennessee
Lucky Ladd Farms
30 miPumpkin patch
Color nearby peaks November 3
A 60-acre family farm park south of Nashville whose Fall Harvest Festival adds a pumpkin patch and corn maze to nearly 60 standing…
in Tennessee
Guides
Frequently asked
- When do leaves peak in Nashville in 2026?
- Peak color is predicted for November 1–November 5 (best estimate November 3). Color starts around October 26 and trees are mostly bare by November 26. These dates are computed for Nashville itself, at 159 m elevation, using the same weather model as the tracker.
- When is fall foliage season in Nashville?
- Nashville colors during autumn (September to November). Counting from the first turn to bare branches that is about 31 days, and the best of it falls in the week either side of November 3.
- What's the best foliage near Nashville?
- Tennessee (37 mi, peak ~November 2); Kentucky (124 mi, peak ~October 24); Alabama (232 mi, peak ~November 16).
- What are the best things to do in fall in Nashville?
- Beyond the leaves: Boo at the Zoo (Nashville Zoo) (6 mi); Nashville Nightmare (7 mi); Nashville Fall Festival (17 mi); Honeysuckle Hill Farm (18 mi); Morning Glory Orchard (19 mi). All of them are mapped on this page.