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Temecula/Mt. Laguna/Lake Hemet – Vintage Color

Temecula Wine Country (10/27/13) Brian Reilly

Temecula Wine Country (10/27/13) Brian Reilly

Color spotter Brian Reilly took these beautiful images at Thornton Winery on the Rancho California Road in Temecula.  This Southern California wine growing region is showing about 50% color.

Old vines make great wine, Temecula (10/27/13) Brian Reilly

Old vines make great wine, Temecula (10/27/13) Brian Reilly

Dessicated grapes, beyond late harvest, Temecula (10/27/13) Brian Reilly

Desicated grapes, beyond late harvest; Temecula (10/27/13) Brian Reilly

30 – 50% – Temecula Wine Country – The vineyards are getting close to peaking and considering the color now visible, we’d have no problem suggesting you GO NOW!, though we expect the color to continue to develop for the next couple of weeks.

San Diego County

So. Calif. color spotter Son H Nguyen reports, “There is not much in Julian, right now,” aside from exotic “Chinese pistache starting to turn in town. There is not much on Pine Hill and it”s around 30-50%.  However, Mt. Laguna is blazing, right now. So many black oak trees, the whole area is near peak.”

30 – 50% – Julian – Best at Pine Hill.

Oaks, Mt Laguna (10/27/13) Son H Nguyen

Black oaks, Mt Laguna (10/27/13) Son H Nguyen

Black oaks, Mt Laguna (10/27/13) Son H Nguyen

Black oaks, Mt Laguna (10/27/13) Son H Nguyen

Black Oak, Mt Laguna (10/27/13) Son H Nguyen

Black oak, Mt Laguna (10/27/13) Son H Nguyen

GO NOW! 75 – 100% – Mt. Laguna – Full peak at oak woodlands on Mt. Laguna in eastern San Diego County.

GO NOW! 50 – 75% – San Jacinto Mountains – Color spotter Anissa Granados from Lake Hemet Campgrounds sends this photo of cottonwood approaching peak at Lake Hemet.  Anissa says the trees ringing the lake and campgrounds provide a lovely setting to be surrounded by fall color.

Lake Hemet Campgrounds (10/29/13) Anissa Granados

Lake Hemet Campgrounds (10/29/13) Anissa Granados

2 replies
  1. Jimbo says:

    Since I can’t find a generic place to post a comment about the Southern California mountains and this particular post relates to that area, I’ll enter my observations here. On 11/02/13, we took a trip up to the Lake Arrowhead area in Southern California. It was sort of mixed bag. At 4,000 feet in elevation, we hiked the Seeley Creek Trail. It’s just north of Crestline on highway 138. On the hike down to Heart Rock, the black oaks were just starting to turn. However, if you go bushwacking downstream from there, there’s a nice area of big leaf maples at peak. At 5,000 feet in elevation, we went to Lake Arrowhead Village. The various trees and shrubs in the village itself were putting on a decent show. However, it looked like most of the black oaks in the area were past peak. And, the native dogwoods along Kuffel Canyon Road looked a little worse for wear. This seems a bit early for this elevation. I’m wondering if the couple of early winter storms that we’ve already had down here aren’t affecting things somewhat. At 6,000 feet in elevation, Heaps Peak Arboreteum’s small stand of dogwoods were WAY past peak. So, all in all, the best fall color was at elevations below 5,000 feet in this area.

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