What to look for in nature in Utah this November

When do tundra swans come to Utah, and where can I see them?

• Tundra swans

  Arriving around November 1; peak the week before Thanksgiving; most leave after the first hard freeze · Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge auto tour route, west of Brigham City; neighboring marshes of Box Elder County

  The DWR flew weekly swan counts from 1962 until 2018, and in those years the birds usually showed up around the start of November and crested in the middle of the month, tens of thousands strong. The refuge’s own bird guide places the peak in the week before Thanksgiving, which this year means roughly November 16 to 25. Most stay into early December and leave once a hard freeze seals the shallows. Swans feed by tipping head-down for roots and tubers, so look for white rumps poking out of the water. The auto tour route is open daily in daylight, weather and road permitting.

• Ducks at their peak, then the exodus

  Peak in the first week of November · Bear River refuge; Farmington Bay, Ogden Bay and other waterfowl management areas along the lake

  The refuge’s guide says its fall waterfowl count crests at about 220,000 birds during the opening week of November, and that the season’s first freeze then sends most of them south in a rush. Go early in the month for the biggest rafts of ducks; the state’s waterfowl management areas will be busy with hunters on the same mornings.

• Rough-legged hawks

  Arriving through November and staying the winter · Over open marsh, fields and sagebrush flats in northern Utah

  The refuge notes that rough-legged hawks, pushed south from their Arctic breeding grounds, begin patrolling the marsh edges this month. They are buteos about the size of a red-tailed hawk, with feathered legs, a dark band across the belly and black wrist marks under each wing, and they often hang in the wind on beating wings over one spot while they hunt for voles.

When do eared grebes leave the Great Salt Lake?

• The grebes’ night departures

  Beginning in November or December and lasting three to four weeks · Over the whole lake; you will not see them go, but you may see the rafts shrink

  Once the exodus begins, the DWR’s Great Salt Lake Ecosystem Program says, flocks lift off nearly every evening around sunset for three to four weeks, bound without a stop for Mexico’s Gulf of California. You will not see them go, but from the Antelope Island causeway you can watch the dark specks that dotted the water in October thin out week by week. In winter dress a grebe is a small gray-and-white diver with a thin bill and red eyes.

• When grebes fall out of the sky

  Stormy nights during the migration · Anywhere along their route, including towns in southern Utah

  Grebes need open water for a running takeoff, so a bird that lands on pavement is stranded. In December 2011 thousands came down in Cedar City, many in a Walmart parking lot, after storm clouds over the city lights made the snowy ground look like water, a DWR biologist told KSL. Volunteers boxed more than 3,000 and released them in Washington County ponds; at least 1,500 died. If you find a grounded grebe after a storm, call the nearest DWR office.

• Brine shrimp harvest, and a low lake

  Harvest season opened October 1, 2026 · Boats on the south and north arms of the lake

  Licensed companies skim the shrimp’s dormant eggs, called cysts, off the lake and sell them as feed for fish and shrimp farms; the DWR values the harvest at $10 million to $60 million a year. The lake itself is low: KSL reported 4,190.40 feet in mid-August, not far above the record of 4,188.5 feet set in November 2022, though state officials did not expect a new record this year. Fall is when the lake usually bottoms out, so the exposed shoreline is at its widest.

• Antelope Island after the roundup

  Online auction of surplus bison on Tuesday, November 3 · Antelope Island State Park

  After the roundup the herd, held at about 500 to 550 animals, is back on the range and the surplus goes to an online auction. The island also has mule deer, bighorn sheep and pronghorn. The park is open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. but closes on Thanksgiving Day (November 26).

When do bald eagles come to Utah for the winter?

• Farmington Bay and the Great Salt Lake marshes

  First arrivals in November; numbers building toward February · Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area and the Eccles Wildlife Education Center, Farmington

  The George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Wildlife Education Center looks out over the Farmington Bay management area, one of the state’s best-known eagle spots. The DWR lists the center as free; check its hours before you go, since they change with the season. Expect a handful of eagles in November rather than the crowds of February.

• Cottonwood roosts in the south and center

  From late fall through winter · Rush Lake Ranch and west Cedar City; the Fountain Green hatchery area in Sanpete County

  The DWR names two roosts near Cedar City: Rush Lake Ranch at 9600 N. Minersville Highway (State Route 130), about 12 miles north of town, and a stand of cottonwoods west of 3900 W. and 2700 N. In Sanpete County, eagles often gather in a large cottonwood about 3.7 miles south of the Fountain Green State Fish Hatchery, and they turn up on poles and fence posts across the valley. The division also lists Willard Bay and Ouray National Wildlife Refuge.

When is the mule deer rut in Utah, and where do bears and elk go in November?

• The mule deer rut

  Through November; many observers put the peak near mid-month or Thanksgiving · Foothills and benches along the Wasatch Front, Antelope Island, the Book Cliffs, the Henry Mountains and southern Utah’s plateaus

  Wild Aware Utah, a partnership that includes the DWR, describes the late fall breeding season as the time when bucks become combative with each other and can be aggressive toward people and pets. A KSL field guide says the rut usually peaks in November and notes that day length, more than weather, sets the timing. Watch for a swollen-necked buck, nose low, dogging a doe, or two bucks shoving antler to antler; Antelope Island’s big bucks can be watched from the road. Keep well back and leash dogs.

• Deer on the highways

  Dawn and dusk all month, worst in the first weeks after the time change · Highways that cross migration routes between summer and winter range

  A DWR migration coordinator told the Park Record that November is Utah’s peak month for hitting deer: bucks roam after does and herds drift to winter range just as the evening drive turns dark. A 2012 DWR study found roughly 10,000 deer-vehicle collisions a year, likely fewer now that more fences and wildlife bridges are in place.

• Bears go to ground

  Most enter dens in November · North- and east-facing slopes in oak brush and conifers

  The DWR’s black bear notebook says Utah bears typically den in November, once most of their food is gone, and stay in a deep sleep for about six months, with body temperature dropping only 8 to 10 degrees. A pregnant female’s embryo does not begin to grow until late November or early December, timed to her entry into the den; the cubs are born there in January or February. After a year in which DWR bear calls doubled because wild food failed, bears may stay active a little later near towns, so lock up garbage and take feeders in until snow stays on the ground.

• Elk coming down to Hardware Ranch

  As persistent cold and snow arrive; sleigh rides from December 5 · Hardware Wildlife Management Area, Blacksmith Fork Canyon east of Hyrum

  The DWR says elk move down to the Hardware meadows once cold and snow settle in, on no fixed date. Sleigh or wagon rides through the herd begin Saturday, December 5, and run Fridays through Sundays to February 15.

Is there any fall color left in Utah in November?

• Cottonwoods in Zion Canyon

  Late October into the first week or two of November · The Virgin River from Springdale to the Temple of Sinawava; the Pa’rus Trail and Riverside Walk

  According to the park, color begins up on the plateaus and creeps downhill, getting to the canyon floor late in October and lingering into the first days of November. On a calm morning the canyon floor is a ribbon of yellow under red cliffs. November days in the park can reach 50 to 60 °F, but nights drop well below freezing, so a warm layer belongs in the pack even on a sunny walk. Snow that falls in the canyon usually melts within hours, the park notes, while it builds up on the plateaus above.

Has all of Utah had its first freeze by November?

When does it start snowing in Utah’s valleys, and when does inversion season begin?

• First valley snow

  Any time in November, more often later in the month · Salt Lake and Cache valleys first; southern deserts rarely

  By NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 normals, the Salt Lake City airport gets 7.0 inches of snow in an average November and 12.1 in December. Logan averages 6.3 inches in November and Bryce Canyon 9.7, while Moab sees about an inch and St. George none. Typical November afternoons reach about 51 °F at the Salt Lake City airport, 45 °F at Logan and 64 °F at St. George, with nights near 33, 29 and 35 °F.

• Inversion season

  Wood-burning restrictions in force from November 1 to March 1 · Northern Utah valleys, above all the Wasatch Front

  When high pressure settles in after a storm, cold air sits in the valleys under a lid of warmer air and the haze thickens day by day. The Utah Department of Environmental Quality, whose wood-burning rules take effect November 1, calls no-burn days when fine particles threaten unhealthy levels; check air.utah.gov or the UtahAir app before lighting a fire. On those gray days a short drive up a canyon often breaks into sunshine, and the top of the murk shows as a flat brown line across the mountains, worth a note under colours of the day.

How much daylight does Utah lose in November?

What will a very strong El Niño mean for Utah this winter?

What is in Utah’s night sky in November 2026?

• The Leonid meteors

  Before dawn on Wednesday, November 18, with the mornings of the 17th and 19th as backups · Face east or overhead after the Moon sets, somewhere away from valley lights

  The International Meteor Organization expects a normal Leonid year: around 15 in an hour for a patient watcher in the desert, and no storm. The radiant in the constellation Leo climbs out of the east around midnight and is highest just before dawn, and the first-quarter Moon is down by about then, so the best window runs from moonset to the start of twilight. Leonids are among the fastest meteors, and bright ones may leave a glowing streak that hangs briefly after the meteor is gone. Utah’s state parks with dark skies, from Antelope Island to Goblin Valley, are ideal if you can stay warm.

• Taurid fireballs

  Southern branch peaks about November 5, northern about November 12 · All night; the radiant is near the Pleiades

  Expect only a handful of Taurids an hour, slow movers that now and then flare into a fireball; the grit comes from Comet Encke. With the new Moon arriving just after midnight on Monday, November 9, the evenings between the two peaks are free of moonlight.

• Four planets before sunrise, one after sunset

  Mars and Jupiter closest on the mornings of November 15 and 16; Mercury best about November 18 to 25 · East and south before dawn; Saturn in the south after dark

  Venus has moved into the morning sky and climbs higher each week, blazing low in the east-southeast before sunrise and reaching its greatest brilliancy late in the month. Above it, in Leo, are Jupiter and the much fainter, orange Mars, which pass about 1.2 degrees apart before sunup on both November 15 and 16, close enough to share a binocular view. Mercury joins them low in the dawn glow, best roughly from the 18th to the 25th. In the evening only Saturn shows, a steady yellowish point due south once twilight fades. Uranus, at its yearly best on the 25th, sits in Taurus, where binoculars and a star chart will find it.

• The Beaver Moon

  Full at 7:53 a.m. on Tuesday, November 24 · Rising in the east-northeast near sunset on the 23rd and 24th

  With the instant of fullness falling in the morning, the Moon will look round on both Monday and Tuesday evenings, and Tuesday’s moonrise is a bit closer to full. Perigee follows roughly a day and a quarter later, enough to call this a modest supermoon. Late on the 23rd the bright Moon sits beside the Seven Sisters and washes them out. December’s Cold Moon, full on the evening of December 23, comes even closer: no full moon this year looks bigger.

What can families do outdoors in Utah in November 2026?

Safety notes for November in Utah