First Report: Coffee Creek Colors Up

Take CA-3 north of CA-299 and you pass Trinity Lake, the Trinity Alps on your way to Coffee Creek.

This western side of the vast Shasta Cascade region is wild, beautiful and so lightly traveled that few photographers or leaf peepers have explored it.

The drive to Coffee Creek is along narrow roads that are flanked with bigleaf maple that dance and sway, littering the road with a carpet of spent leaves that swirl up in spirals as you pass.

Color spotter Ruth Hartman of the Coffee Creek Ranch says the color is peaking right now.  Her dude ranch is better known for its stable of horses and miles of trails that lead into 367 acres of ranch property and the Trinity Wilderness area, though it could become known as a fall color retreat for the lovely color to be found in its forests.

The predominant deciduous tree is the bigleaf maple with its golden leaves.  Black oak provide orange color and wild cucumber speckle the forest with chartreuse.

One of the rarest and most beautiful trees on the continent, though not deciduous, is Brewer’s weeping spruce, picea breweriana, with its dark green boughs hanging in abstract, Seussian forms.

For anyone who loves showy trees, Brewer’s weeping spruce are well worth the trip north to the Trinity Alps to see them.

Elsewhere in the Shasta Cascade region:

Alder are at full peak in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Color spotter Gabriel Leete captured this beast of an Alder near Kings Creek.

Plumas County color spotter Karen Moritz reports, “dogwoods are really showing up nicely on Bucks Lake Road out of Quincy.

While, Indian Valley color spotter Jeff Titcomb reports the dogwoods, big leaf maple and oak trees are looking great on the road to Round Valley Lake Reservoir.

Peak GO NOW! (75-100%) – Coffee Creek – Bigleaf maple leaves flutter down through the forest along the country roads leading to Coffee Creek Ranch.  Bring your fly rod and riding boots.  Nearby areas to explore include Trinity Center, Trinity Lake, Whiskeytown National Recreation Area and the historic gold rush town of Weaverville.

Peak GO NOW! (75-100%) – Lassen Volcanic National Park – Alder are at full peak throughout the park.

NearPeak GO NOW! (50-75%) – Plumas County – Indian Rhubarb have been peaking along the Feather River.  Dogwood and bigleaf maple are peaking in the Round Valley.  Other areas of Plumas County are filling up with color.