High Sierra Sings Its Fall Swan Song

With snow blanketing high points throughout the Eastern and Northern Sierra, as Mono County color spotter Alicia Vennos reports, “most areas are now past peak.”

Exceptions are northern Mono County where Walker, Coleville and Topaz in the Antelope Valley “are absolutely gorgeous, right now.” and the Owens Valley.

These territories are, as Alicia describes, a “combination of pastoral ranch lands surrounded by rugged snowcapped mountains, populated with golden poplars, willows, elm and aspen, and rivers running running through it all.”

At the north end of US 395, it’s the West Walker River canyon and Antelope Valley. To the south, it’s the Owens River and Valley. Both will continue to show nice fall color for the next week or two.

This week’s snow has closed several roads and passes, including Tioga Pass (CA-120), Sonora Pass (CA-108), Monitor Pass (CA-89) and roads to Red’s Meadow, Devil’s Postpile, Lake Mary and the Mammoth Lakes Basin.

Those closures also indicate that skiing and snowboarding is about to begin. Sure enough, Mammoth Mountain has announced it will be opening a week earlier than anticipated, with lifts operating, starting on Thursday (Nov. 5).