Fall color near New Orleans
New Orleans keeps its live-oak green all year, so don't come for maples. Come for cypress season instead — City Park's big bald cypresses and the Barataria swamps turn a deep rust as the air finally cools, and the light over the bayous goes soft and golden. It's autumn, Louisiana style: subtle, slow, and worth an unhurried walk.
Fall activities in New Orleans
Little classic fall color reaches New Orleans itself, so these are the closest real shows, ranked by distance.
Drag the date slider to see when color moves through the country around New Orleans, or tap a pin for that stop’s own peak window.
Louisiana
138 miPeak November 26
Foliage here is subtle and subtropical: bald cypress in the Atchafalaya Basin turns rust and copper while sweetgum and hickory color the northern hill country. Color lingers later than most states, often into late November.
Mississippi
192 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.
Alabama
284 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.
Arkansas
368 miPeak November 3
The Ozark and Ouachita Mountains fill with oak, hickory, and sweetgum color each fall, with sourwood adding early crimson. The Talimena Scenic Drive and Mount Magazine offer sweeping overlooks, typically peaking in late October.
Georgia
437 miPeak November 17
North Georgia's Blue Ridge foothills turn hickory, sourwood, and maple gold along the Richard Russell Scenic Highway and around Vogel State Park, with peak color typically arriving in late October to early November.
In New Orleans itself
Peak: November 24–November 28
Color builds from November 13 · mostly bare by December 21
Sampled at New Orleans’s own coordinates rather than a regional average. Dates are computed for New Orleans itself at 19 m elevation. Street trees vary block to block, so check locally before you plan a weekend around it.
This window comes from 18 weather points across Louisiana, nudged 1 day later to match 1 published peak date from explorefall.com. Louisiana is running 2 days earlier than its own average this year. Louisiana turns close to together, with about 3 days between its earliest corner and its latest. How the forecast works
Where locals go
Things to do in fall in New Orleans
Orchards, cider, haunts, and harvest season. These are the iconic fall stops within a day trip of New Orleans.
French Quarter Phantoms
Ghost tourColor nearby peaks November 26
Established in 2006, this locally owned outfit walks just under a mile through the Quarter and Treme on a 105-minute Ghost and Vampire…
Color nearby peaks November 26
A two-hour walk through the Garden District with a guide who is usually a working historian, ending at the wrought-iron gates of Lafayette…
The Mortuary Haunted Mansion
Haunted attractionColor nearby peaks November 26
A genuine former funeral home at the dead end of Canal Street, where more than 20,000 funerals took place between 1930 and 2003.
New Orleans Nightmare
Haunted attractionColor nearby peaks November 26
Two haunts under one roof near the Fair Grounds: House of Flesh, an abandoned morgue that chases you through freezer corridors, and Harvest…
Fall festival
Color nearby peaks November 27
A sixteenth-century English village rebuilt in the pines outside Hammond, with jousting, hundreds of costumed performers and turkey legs…
in Louisiana
Liuzza Land
56 miCorn maze
Color nearby peaks November 27
A Tangipahoa Parish farm that opens its biggest corn maze yet each October, alongside pumpkin picking, tractor rides and a honeybee exhibit…
in Louisiana
Frequently asked
- Does New Orleans get fall colors?
- Some, but it stays understated. Expect scattered street trees rather than a hillside, with the color worth planning around out toward Louisiana and Mississippi.
- Where's the closest good foliage to New Orleans?
- Louisiana, about 138 mi away, peaking around November 26. Foliage here is subtle and subtropical: bald cypress in the Atchafalaya Basin turns rust and copper while sweetgum and hickory color the northern hill country. Color lingers later than most states, often into late November.
- When does New Orleans see what color it gets?
- The model predicts the area's late-season change around November 24–November 28. It stays subtle in town, and it is no match for a trip toward Louisiana and Mississippi.
- What are the best things to do in fall in New Orleans?
- Beyond the leaves: French Quarter Phantoms (1 mi); Historic New Orleans Tours (Garden District) (2 mi); The Mortuary Haunted Mansion (3 mi); New Orleans Nightmare (6 mi); Louisiana Renaissance Festival (44 mi). All of them are mapped on this page.