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Eureka! We Found More Fall Color

Glowing oranges at Sequoia Park (11/24/23) Michelle Pontoni

During a recent family trip to the Sequoia Park Zoo and Redwood Sky Walk in Eureka, Michelle Pontoni found blue skies with very little wind and hundreds of visitors.  

“We parked near Sequoia Park where we found the trees behind the busy playground swing sets were glowing orange against the evergreen backdrop,” she said.

According to its website, “The Redwood Sky Walk inside the zoo is a self-guided interpretive experience designed to educate, inspire, and delight visitors. Learn about the rich hidden ecology of the world’s tallest trees from an entirely new perspective.

“100 feet above the lush and verdant forest floor, view the canopy and legendary old-growth and mature second-growth redwood trees closer than ever before. 

“As the longest sky walk in the western United States, the Redwood Sky Walk is just under 1/4 mile to the end and back.”

Learn more about the zoo at 

Redwood Sky Walk at Sequoia Park Zoo, Eureka (11/24/23) Michelle Pontoni
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Colorful at Cal Poly

Cal Poly Humboldt - College Creek dorms (11/19/23) Michelle Pontoni

The colors continue under blue skies at Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata. More sunshine was in the forecast today making for a perfect time to visit the quiet campus during the break, according to color spotter Michelle Pontoni.

GO NOW!

Near Cal Poly Humboldt soccer field (11/19/23) Michelle Pontoni
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Yowzers in Yountville

Vineyards are glowing in Yountville (11/11/23) Lucas Yan

Yountville in the Napa Valley region is looking lovely with peaking Chinese Pistache trees as well as beautiful changes at the public vineyard at Oak Circle. Everything is peaking and you should make plans to Go Now!, says color spotter Lucas Yan.

  • Yountville (98′) – PEAK (75-10%) GO NOW!
Yountville all aglow (11/11/23) Lucas Yan
Chinese Pistache and vineyards in Yountville (11/11/23) Lucas Yan
Yountville (11/11/23) Lucas Yan
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Exciting in Arcata

Warren Creek Trestle (11/3/23) Michelle Pontoni

We heard from color spotter Michelle Pontoni over the weekend when she spotted “exciting color” in Arcata. You should GO NOW! to this area.

She found it along both sides of West End Road and when she turned left onto Warren Creek Road.

As you approach the Warren Creek Trestle you are surrounded by huge trees of golds and yellows.

“Passing under the trestle takes us back to remembering the Annie & Mary Railroad in the ‘50’s when the foliage was sparse aside the same trestle,” she said of the area’s history.

Pontoni also warned against getting too distracted by the colors as you drive.

“Pay attention to the road as you take in the color. It is narrow and curvy. Watch for bicycles. “

Warren Creek Trestle and Mad River beyond (circa 1955) from Facebook North Coast Railroad History, unknown photographer - all credit to them!
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Late Fall Color in Arcata

Cal Poly Humboldt Library (10/28/23) Michelle Pontoni

Color spotter Michelle Pontoni reported from Arcata this week with the following information:

We’ve had a sunny week in Arcata, but with rain approaching Wednesday night (Nov. 1) we are seeing the last of the blue sky for awhile. 

Go NOW! to catch some late color. 

We wandered through the Cal Poly Humboldt campus and found quite a bit of color on Oct. 28.

We took shelter from the sun (yes it sometimes warms up in Arcata) beneath a large maple showing all green leaves on the underside. When we looked up into the top story windows of the university library, we could see the reflection of the brilliant colors crowning the tree. 

Along Harpst Street some years these trees all change color at the same time but this year it is the north side of the street changing first. 

There are ferns everywhere on campus and today they are covered with the browns and golds of fall. 

Grab a look at the colors here before they are gone.

Along Harpst Street some years these trees all change color at the same time but this year it is the north side of the street changing first. (10/28/23) Michelle Pontoni
Harpst Street Arcata (10/28/23) Michelle Pontoni
There are ferns everywhere on campus and today they are covered with the browns and golds of fall. (10/28/23) Michelle Pontoni
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Color is Humming in Humboldt County

Mushrooms in Arcata make for fun color patches (10/21/23) Michelle Pontoni

Take a fall drive from Santa Rosa to Arcata and you just might be as lucky as color spotter Michelle Pontoni last Friday, October 20.

Pontoni reports that color searchers can find a little burst of yellow and orange among the evergreens around each corner driving north from Willits into Humboldt County. 
 
“The vineyards range from full green to brilliant multicolored,” she says. “There’s still time to enjoy the fall.”
 
Additionally, Pontoni reported from Arcata on Oct. 21.
 
“These are fun little color patches and are popping up all over in our super moist forests,” she explained of the happy little mushrooms growing in the region. Fall color can come in all shapes and sizes.
Highway 101 north of Willits (10/20/23) Michelle Pontoni
Highway 101 north of Willits (10/20/23) Michelle Pontoni
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Sonoma County Also Slow to Start

Abbot's Passage Winery (10/11/23) Risa Wyatt

As we’ve seen in other areas of the state this year, color spotter Risa Wyatt reports that on Oct. 11, Sonoma County areas were just starting to show at 0-10%.

Late but great, she says—That’s how vintners assess the 2023 grape harvest in Napa and Sonoma Counties. Because of the cool growing season and foggy mornings, harvest began in late August, about three weeks later than usual. But the slow ripening—called “long hang time” by winemakers—allowed the grapes to develop more complex and intense flavors. Visitors to both Napa and Sonoma in October will see crews picking in the fields and trucks hauling tons of fruit to wineries. As they drive through the valleys, they’ll also relish the smell of grapes being crushed and fermented. Like the grapes themselves, color change of the leaves is running behind schedule. Vines and trees are just starting to burst into autumnal hues.

Viansa Winery / Sonoma

In 1895, Samuele Sebastiani emigrated from Italy to Sonoma, opening a winery nine years later. Today, the fourth generation of his family runs Viansa, set on a hilltop overlooking a 97-acre wetland preserve. Viansa honors the family heritage with both its Tuscan-style architecture and offerings of Italian grape varieties such as Arneis, Bianchetta Trevigiana, and Barbera, as well as California classics such as Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. Although the grape leaves are just starting to change color, the ivy on the buildings has taken on autumnal hues.

Cornerstone Sonoma / Sonoma

Although the grape harvest is running late, jack-o’-lanterns and their friends are right on schedule. Tapping into the seasonal spirit, Cornerstone Sonoma features colorful gourds in all shapes and sizes as well as a fanciful Pumpkin House—the nursery-rhyme pumpkin eater never had so plush an abode. Cornerstone also offers a cornucopia of shops, tasting rooms, and gardens, as well as the Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand awarded restaurant, Folktable.

Abbot’s Passage / Glen Ellen

Some trees just gotta be first—like these maples that stand in chromatic contrast to the vines at Abbot’s Passage. The winery reflects the vision of Katie Bundschu, the sixth-generation of the family that established Gundlach Bundschu, one of the oldest wineries in California. Nestled in Sonoma Valley (aka Valley of the Moon), the estate is known for its 80-year-old head-trained, dry-farmed Zinfandel vines. Some vines have been grafted over to new varieties such as Mourvèdre, Carignan, and Petit Sirah to craft complex wine blends. Abbot’s Passage also has a wine-centric mercantile selling picnic blankets, books, corkscrews, and more.

Cornerstone Sonoma's jack-o-lanterns (10//11/23) Risa Wyatt
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Humboldt Coast Range

Evening Solitude, Liebforth Ranch, Coast Range (10/5/23) John Poimiroo

Bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) were Just Starting at 3,700′ as we drove highway 36 west from the Central Valley to a reunion at Liebforth Ranch, the family’s 102-year-old homestead in the Charles Mountain drainage.

There’s sporadic color and little of it along the route. Yellow maple leaves are few between, and then with curled, orange-brown edges. They seem healthier the farther you drive west toward moisture.

Forest Glen is a sad relic of what it once was. The town of ten inhabitants used to be surrounded by lush forest. Now it is a graveyard of grey-black skeletons where in August 2020 the Complex Fire raged across more than a million acres of forest and woodland.

The putrid perfume of a pot farm insulted our senses as we neared  Humboldt County. Word among local ranchers is that cultivating marijuana is on hard times due to competition, now that growing is legal in the Emerald Triangle.

It was maddening near Mad River where almost no fall color could be seen in the forest, except orange-red brush which glowed like embers in the woods.

As we rose and dipped along the twisting road we moved over to the Van Duzen River, which was more promising as Dinsmore approached. Patchy color filled a mixed riparian woodland  of orange-brown black cottonwood (Populus balsamifera), white alder (Alnus rhombiflia) and black oak (Quercus kelloggii) in mid afternoon, glowingly backlit with gold, green and buff. Then, the color ended on the way to Bridgeville and down Alderpoint Road to the family homestead. 

I concluded, I wouldn’t recommend CA-36 for fall color. There isn’t much of it in return for the effort.

The land south of Bridgeville along Alderpoint Road is cowboy country. There, honest ranchers tend grass-fed organic beef for Whole Foods and neighbors, miles apart, know each other and what they’re doing just by the sound of dogs barking, cows mooing or a chain saw’s insistent brrrr. Every sound tells a story of what’s happening, as if it were telegraphed.

On our departure from Leibforth Ranch, we returned to Bridgeville and 36, now heading west through Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park where iridescent poison oak vines climb redwood trunks to dizzying heights and glow hot orange-pink in a foggy forest that is speckled with yellow maple leaves.

South of Scotia on U.S. 101, the Avenue of the Giants (CA-254) is Patchy with bigleaf maple at 20% and poison oak near peak at 70%.

It will be a week or two more before the Redwood Highway (US 101) and Humboldt Redwoods State Park are at Peak.

Leaving the redwoods and entering Mendocino wine country, some varieties of grapes (likely white) were peaking bright yellow, though the vineyards were Just Starting with most vineyards green. Just Starting color was also seen at Clear Lake where old walnut orchards are carrying golden color.

  • Forest Glen (2,700′) – Past Peak, You missed it.
  • Mad River (4,845′) – Past Peak, You missed it.
  • Van Duzen River, Dinsmore (2,415′) – 10-50% Patchy
  • Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park (935) – Poison Oak only – 75-100% – Peak, GO NOW! 
  • Avenue of the Giants (CA-254) – 0 – 10% Just Starting
  • Laytonville (1,670′) – 10-50% Patchy
  • Redwood Valley vineyards – 0-10% Just Starting
  • Upper Lake (1,345′) – 0-10% Just Starting
  • CA-20, Clear Lake – 0-10% Just Starting
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Going, Going …

Fungi, Sue-Meg State Park (11/15/22) Michelle Pontoni

Peaking fungi are all that’s left of fall color at Sue-meg State Park in Humboldt County. Regardless, color spotter Michelle Pontoni wrote, “This is the perfect time to enjoy the best of California’s north coast.

She says that in early December Humboldt County days are often cloudless, mild and the landscape deserted, making the last days of autumn an ideal time to visit. We recommend watching weather forecasts closely and picking an open window of clear weather along the north coast for this experience.

If you’re unfamiliar with the state park, Sue-meg is the new/old name of what used to be Patrick Point SP. The local Yurok people had always called the location that, but the park got named Patrick Point – the local name – when it was brought into the state park system in the 1930s. 

A Yurok village was recreated there in the 1990s and named “Sumêg” to honor the ancient name associated with the site. Recent efforts to honor traditional names included returning Sue-meg as the description to this location.

Sue-meg SP is a few miles north of Trinidad and south of Prairie Creek Redwoods SP and Redwoods NP, so there’s lots to see in the area, if not much fall color, which is now … gone.

  • Sue-meg SP, Trinidad (174′) – Past Peak, You Missed It.
Gone, Sue-meg SP, Trinidad (11/15/22) Michelle Pontoni
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Berry Good Time of Year

It was a berry good time for John Natelli to explore Nunn Canyon and the Calabasas Creek Open Space Preserve, in the Sonoma Valley, this past Wednesday. Not only did he find bigleaf maple at peak along the trail, but bunches of Snowberry and California Holly (Toyon) berries to brighten his walk.

Late November is when several attractive berries are at their best. Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) is also called Christmas berry and California holly for the season in which it bears fruit. No doubt Toyon decorated many a pioneer’s or prospector’s holiday tables, as probably did Snowberries (Symphoricarpos albus).

Toyon berries are eaten by many species of birds and some mammals. When cooked, their bitter taste is removed, though they were often eaten both cooked and raw by native people.

Native Californians had many uses for Snowberry as a medicinal treatment, though the saponins in them can be extremely toxic if consumed in excess the Encyclopedia of Food and Health advises.

Elsewhere on his walk, Natelli found vineyards at peak with yellow, gold, cherry and carmine vines near Loxton Cellars.

Sonoma Valley, near Loxton Cellars (11/16/22) John Natelli
  • Sonoma Valley (108′) – PEAK (75-100%) GO NOW!