California Fall Color

Dude, autumn happens here, too.

Fall color has now descended to the mid elevations throughout California, with peak color occurring in the vineyards, the Sierra foothills, the San Jacinto Mountains in Southern California and on Hwy 299 between Redding and Weaverville.

Color is peaking in urban forests and orchards of the Sacramento Valley.  With an approaching storm, leaf peepers and photographers are advised to go now to peaking areas, before the leaves are further denuded from branches.

Eastern Sierra

75 – 100% – Owens Valley - The Owens Valley remains beautiful with long-lasting spots of bright color along US 395 in Bishop and Independence.

75 – 100% – Rock Creek - First to peak and last to peak in the Eastern Sierra, Rock Creek continues to have areas of lovely color at its lowest elevations.

Past Peak – June Lake - Although there are small pockets of nice  color found along the June Lake Loop, this area is now mostly past peak.

High Sierra

Past Peak – All elevations above 5,000′ are now past peak.

Past Peak – Yosemite Valley - The combination of snow on fall color was gorgeous in Yosemite Valley this past weekend, but this likely was the last spurt of leaf peeping to be seen in the national park.

Gold Country

75 – 100% - Color has descended along the Mother Lode with beautiful orange and yellow maples and oaks showing from the 2,000 to 4,000′ elevations.

Central Valley

75 – 100% - The urban forests in Sacramento, Modesto and  cities of the northern Central Valley have been peaking for the past two weeks with beautiful color reported.  Sacramento is a veritable jewel box of brilliant reds, auburns, oranges, yellows and chartreuse.  Recent storms have affected some trees, though there’s still a lots and lots of color to be seen.   Go Now!

North Coast

75 – 100% – Napa and Sonoma County Vineyards - As has been happening for near a  month, the vineyards of Napa and Sonoma Counties have been peaking, with vineyards showing ruby, orange, yellow and lime by variety.  The wine country doesn’t change all at once, it shows by plot, though lots of great color remains.  Go Now!

Southern California

75 – 100% – San Jacinto Mountains - Dazzling displays of yellow and orange have been seen among the maple and oaks of the San Jacinto Mountains near Lake Hemet, Mountain Center and Idyllwild.  Go Now!

With rain and snow lashing Northern California and ski areas opening, one might conclude autumn has given way to winter in California.  Not so.  Storms pass quickly, leaving behind lots of discoveries, like these images captured today in the Sierra foothills.

In time for the fall election, the state capital city of Sacramento gets the votes of color spotters Amy King and Nicole Coburn, as popping with campaign-winning color.

75 – 100% – Sacramento - The City of Trees is aflame in red, orange and yellow with a display of fall color that is strong enough to stop political ads dead in their tracks.

Here’s a proposition… go now to see the urban forest of our state capital at its prime.  Great places to see color: Capitol Park, Land Park and the Fabulous 40s (residential areas along avenues 40 through 49 in midtown Sacramento).

Location: Sacramento, Calif.
Temperature: 57.2 °F
Humidity: 80%
Dew point: 51.8 °F
Wind speed: n/a
Wind direction: n/a
Cloud cover: n/a

Here’s a roundup of color seen around the state.  We received photos only from Mono County.  I drove through Napa and Sonoma Counties today, but had no time to stop and take photos, so must leave that to local color spotters.  Visit the “About” page on this site to find our email address.

Also, if you’re frustrated that we haven’t responded to requests posted on our Facebook page, it got blocked by Facebook because we responded to a message sent to us by one of our color spotters.  The message was actually a Facebook virus that infected our site.  So, Facebook has blocked us from posting until they’re sure the virus is gone.

This blog, however, is not infected, so it will continue to post reports.  Because the Facebook message from the spotter related to “color change,” we thought it had something to do with fall color.  And, since it came from a productive spotter, we clicked on the request, only to learn today that it was a virus.

Because it was a virus and because we clicked to accept the color spotter’s request, the virus may have sent itself among our Facebook friends.  So, if you are a subscriber to our Facebook page and receive a request from us to something to do with “color change,” don’t accept it.   In the meantime, here’s what’s happening:

 

 

 

Eastern Sierra

Past Peak – Bishop Creek Canyon (above 7,500’) – All elevations above 7,500’ are now past peak, though some spectacular color can be seen in pockets of the Bishop Creek Canyon.

75 – 100% – Bishop Creek Canyon (below 7,500’) – The lower areas of Bishop Creek Canyon are in their glory, with lots of yellow and spots of orange.

50 – 75% – Owens Valley - The color seen in Bishop and other towns long US 395 contrasted with snow atop Eastern Sierra peaks is breathtaking.

75 – 100% – Convict Lake – The mix of snow and fall color this past week has been beautiful.

75 – 100% – Mammoth Lakes – Spirits are up at Mammoth Mountain which reported 18” of new snow on the mountain this past week.  Combined with the fall color that’s still to be seen in the Lakes Basin, the area is “stunning.”

75 – 100% – June Lake – Color is at peak along the June Lake Loop, described by a reporter as “magnificent.”  The early snow has provided beautiful contrast.

Western Sierra

30 – 50% – Yosemite Valley – Dogwood are coloring pink, the bigleaf maple have dropped leaves into fern spring  and the black oak are turning bright orange and black in time for Halloween.  The famous pioneer Eastern Sugar Maple near the Yosemite chapel is past peak.  Yosemite nature photographer, Michael Frye reports on his blog (see link at left), “… autumn is arriving slowly. I found some nice color across the river from El Capitan, underneath Middle Cathedral Rock, where most of the maples have turned yellow. Some other maples around the valley have also turned, along with a few dogwoods and cottonwoods, but most of the deciduous trees are still green.  It looks like the peak color is still at least a week away, but the good news is that most of the trees seem to be in good shape. The leaves on a few dogwoods have already wilted and turned brown, but these are a small minority. Last year most of the cottonwood leaves wilted before changing color, but this year the cottonwoods look normal—if still mostly green.”

Gold Country

75 – 100% – Sierra Foothills – Grasses and ground covers in the Sierra foothills are glowing golden with splashes of maroon, along Latrobe Road, CA-16 and Buena Vista Road.  Amador County vineyards are just beginning to show yellow and auburn, mostly lime green on the vines.

North Coast

30 – 50% – Napa Valley – A hillside of vines at the intersection of CA-12 and the Silverado Trail is flush with ruby, yellow, orange and lime.

30 – 50% – Carneros – Vines near Cuvaison and Domaine Carneros at CA-12 and Duhig Rd. are yellow, red and lime.

30 – 50% – Valley of the Moon, Sonoma County – Vines along Stage Gulch Rd (CA-116) now sparkle with red, yellow and lime.

Today, we traveled through the Gold Country, from Folsom along U.S. 50 to Placerville and Pleasant Valley.  15 – 30% of the sycamore along Iron Point Rd in Folsom are exhibiting their lovely chartreuse tones.   In El Dorado Hills (800′) exotics like sycamore and Chinese pistache are just beginning to show chartreuse and hints of purple.

At Narrow Gate Vineyards, harvest is near complete and yet the vines are just beginning to show color.  Their just-released Cab Syrah scores 100% in our book, though this superb wine will begin to peak in a year and reach peak in five.  We bought futures and are grinning with anticipation of  the peak to come.

On Pleasant Valley Rd, south of Placerville, from 0 – 15% of sumac have turned bright yellow.  These trees are numerous in the Sierra foothills and along with bigleaf maple provide lots of yellow in the woods.

0 – 15% – Gold Country - Although there are patches of bright color, most foliage in the Gold Country are not showing much color, as yet.

Location: Placerville, CA
Temperature: 57.2 °F
Humidity: 67%
Dew point: 46.4 °F
Wind speed: n/a
Wind direction: n/a
Cloud cover: n/a

It didn’t even take “24 little hours” for the color to disappear in El Dorado Hills.  These two photographs of a Redbud, covered with yellow leaves were taken four and a half hours apart, as gale force winds lashed northern California today.  Some of the color survived, but much was blown from the trees.

75 – 100% – Sierra Foothills - A major windstorm lashed the Sierra Foothills, denuding some species of their colorful leaves, though leaving many other trees with lots of leaves on their branches.

75 – 100% – UC Botanical Garden - Color Spotter Sandy Steinman of Natural History Wanderings has posted lovely photos taken within the botanical garden at UC Berkeley, showing that there’s still plenty of beautiful autumn color to be seen in the San Francisco Bay Area, if you know where to wander!  CLICK HERE to see his excellent report.

50 – 75% – LA Arboretum and Garden -Frank McDonough reports that fall color is still coming along at the Arboretum with 60%-75% of all trees here that change color having turned, but the predicted 60-70 mph winds lashing the state could be a death knell for fall color there.  Still, anyone who says there isn’t fall color in Southern California hasn’t looked out from the arboretum’s Tallac Knoll across the landscape, as seen at left.

75-100% – Urban Forests - Urban areas throughout California are glowing colorfully in time for Thanksgiving Day.  Mild weather has contributed to keeping leaves and berries on the trees.  The colorful show has now descended among exotic trees to below 1,000 ft in elevation with Chinese pistache showing flame red, crabapples yellow to orange-red, Sycamores varying from chartreuse to burnt sienna, and plums radiating burgundy red.  Look for the color to continue through Thanksgiving week in the Sierra Foothills, Sacramento, Fresno and San Francisco Bay Area.

Color spotter and travel writer Barbara Steinberg saw this gingko tree on P Street in Sacramento this past Saturday.  She was so determined to get a shot of this colorful specimen that she returned with her camera the next day to take this shot.  Bravo for your persistence, Barbara!

After a big storm (and we had one yesterday), color spotters get a bit philosophical.  Plumas County’s black oak naturalist, Joe Willis blogged yesterday that the storm had discouraged taking pictures until he noticed the leaves knocked down by the rain and found beauty in them.  He continued, “we might not have a real peak this year. The unusual sequence of rain and temperature patterns seem to have made for a very uneven and unpredictable [although I did predict this in an early September post!] season for viewing fall colors. Some species of maple have turned bright red and are already losing leaves while just a few blocks away the same species of trees is still green. Some maples are turning yellow then falling, skipping the red period altogether.”

What I’ve seen over the years is that while rain, snow and wind do reduce the number of or damage leaves that have already turned color, they seem not to have much effect on leaves that haven’t yet turned from green to lime.  What’s interesting about this year is that the color change has been late this fall and until late Saturday and Sunday, we’d had very little rain throughout California this autumn, providing for ideal color.  The photos taken by Rob Bohning a week earlier in the Eastern Sierra attest to that.  Of course, much of that color has been blown off branches by yesterday’s strong winds, but below 7,000′ there’s still lots of color yet to develop.

Photographer Michael Frye was reporting in his blog three days ago that in Yosemite Valley (5,000 ft) 50% of the bigleaf maple have turned and only 20% of the dogwood and cottonwood, which means there’s still lots of color yet to show.  One of my favorite colors of autumn are the bright orange leaves and dark branches of the black oaks of Yosemite National Park, as they’re so reminiscent of Halloween.  These trees are particularly beautiful when framing a waterfall and with yesterday’s storms, Yosemite’s waterfalls should be flowing again for that kind of photo.  Another popular photograph is of Fern Spring, the smallest waterfall in Yosemite Valley.  In its dark reflective waters, colorful maple leaves gather for a classic shot.

Past Peak – Above 8,000 ft.

75-100% – High Sierra below 7,000 ft.  There’s still lots of color in the canyons among aspen that had not yet turned color.  If you base your trips of the East Side in Bishop, be sure to visit Mountain Light, Galen and Barbara Rowell’s visually motivating photographic gallery.

30-50% – This week through Wednesday and coming weekend should be good times to head to Yosemite, though it is predicted to rain on Thursday and Friday.

30-50% – Another good choice for weekend adventures would be a tour of the Shasta Cascade, including a loop from Redding to Weaverville on CA-299, or to Lassen Volcanic National Park on CA-44, then north on CA 89 toward Mt. Shasta, past McCloud before returning to your base in Redding.  For those planing to drive through Lassen Volcanic National Park, the Lassen Park Road closes intermittently when storms pass through.  Closures can exist from the Devastated Area at the north to the Sulphur Works to the south, meaning that you can no longer drive entirely through the park when it’s snowing on Lassen Peak, but in areas you can drive there remain nice stands of aspen showing yellow.  Though, there’s no telling how long that will last.

30-50% – Vineyards are glowing yellow with flares of red and orange.  Head to the Napa Valley, Sonoma County and the Sierra Foothills for a bit of wine tasting mixed with leaf peeping.

15-30% – Color is also beginning to show in our urban forests.  Sacramento, San Francisco and Chico have beautiful displays of color, particularly in their great parks (Land Park, Golden Gate and Bidwell).  So, don’t get to philosophical about one storm.  Grab your camera, your sweetheart and the wheel and see the color in places where it’s at its best… after all, California is a big state!

75-100% — Newton and Snow Roads (2,000′). Black Oaks and bigleaf maple are fully orange and yellow from U.S. 50 south of Placerville on Newton Road to the Pleasant Valley, indicative of similar color to be found throughout the Sierra foothills.

We drove to Holly’s Hill Vineyards in the El Dorado AVA, to find the vineyards to be at peak with orange to red across the rolling hills, as these snaps from an iPhone attest.

75-100% — Southern California. Jimbo comments from Southern California that there’s still lots of color to be found in the mountains.  He writes, “The black oaks have turned around places like Crestline, Idyllwild and Palomar Mountain.”

Thanks to readers, like Jimbo, I’m able to cover all of the state.  Do email me if you’ve got a report.  Photos are great.  Give me your full name and I’ll make sure you get credited.  These reports will continue through Thanksgiving Day.

Photo Credit: © 2009, John Poimiroo