Hop on Over to the East Side

One of the beautiful colors to be seen now is the brilliant yellow to gold of rabbitbrush (chrysothamnus).  This shrub blankets the high dessert and alpine reaches of the Eastern Sierra with bold color.  Color spotter Dennis Vance sends these photos of rabbitbrush and native rose hips.

50 – 75% – Seven Pines – West of Independence on the Onion Valley Road (6,440′), the rabbitbrush is “exploding in solid yellow,” Vance reports.  Adjacent Independence Creek is displaying bright red hips of the California Rose (rosa californica) and a hint of pale yellow, rising from the dark ashes of a 2007 fire that devastated this foothill area beneath Kearsarge Peak.