Black oak, Clear Creek Trestle, Plumas County (11/4/16) Dennis Hayes
Railfans consider the Keddie Wye to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Western Pacific Railroad World.
It is a railroad junction in the form of a “wye” on the Union Pacific Railroad in Plumas County at the town of Keddie. The wye joins the east-west Feather River Route with a branch line (the “Inside Gateway”) north to Bieber. What makes the wye so attractive is that locomotives and their trains traveling across it provide photogenic subjects for train spotters.
Though, at this time of year, orange-colored peaking black oak in the forest near the wye are just as attractive to color spotters, as Dennis Hayes demonstrates in his vibrant photograph of the Clear Creek trestle taken on Hwy 70/89 over Spanish Creek, about 1/3-mile northeast of the Keddie Wye.
Keddie Wye, Plumas County – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
Bigleaf maple, Sanborn County Park, Saratoga (11/9/16) Leor Pantilat
Bigleaf maple, Sanborn County Park, Saratoga (11/9/16) Leor Pantilat
Bigleaf maple, Sanborn County Park, Saratoga (11/9/16) Leor Pantilat
Bigleaf maple, Sanborn County Park, Saratoga (11/9/16) Leor Pantilat
Bigleaf maple, Sanborn County Park, Saratoga (11/9/16) Leor Pantilat
Bigleaf maple, Sanborn County Park, Saratoga (11/9/16) Leor Pantilat
Bigleaf maple, Sanborn County Park, Saratoga (11/9/16) Leor Pantilat
The Santa Cruz Mountains have lovely pockets of fall color: at Roaring Camp and Big Trees Narrow Gauge RR in Felton, at Big Basin Redwoods State Park in Boulder Creek and along Skyline Drive.
Sanborn County Park (Santa Clara County Parks District) is an oft-overlooked location to spot bucolic color. It’s found by taking Skyline Blvd./Hwy 35 from Patchen Pass to Saratoga Gap.
Color spotter Leor Pantilat scores a first report for this location and reports that along the way, “You’ll drive through some fantastic sections of yellow and orange bigleaf maples. The bigleafs are the best they have been in years after slightly above normal precipitation last winter (bigleafs like water).”
He opines, “In the preceding drought years a good deal of the leaves fell prematurely before turning. Black oak is also peaking with California hazelnut providing some extra color in the understory. At this location the peak should continue for another week or so… until the next winds blow through.
The park has over 22 miles of trails. Hike of the Week is the Lake Ranch Trail, a shaded, easy hike between Lake Ranch and Black Road.
Sanborn County Park, Santa Cruz Mountains – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
http://www.californiafallcolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/logo-1.png00John Poimiroohttp://www.californiafallcolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/logo-1.pngJohn Poimiroo2016-11-09 15:37:312016-11-09 21:45:08First Report: Sanborn County Park, Santa Cruz Mts.
Videographer Skandar Reid shows how to watch sunsets in the Eastern Sierra… turn toward the east.
That’s because sunset light bends through the atmosphere at high elevations to create a phenomenon called alpenglow that colors high peaks to the east.
That happens in Bishop where sunsets beyond the Sierra illuminate the eastern White Mountains with their alpenglow. So, at sunset in the Eastern Sierra, look east.
http://www.californiafallcolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/logo-1.png00John Poimiroohttp://www.californiafallcolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/logo-1.pngJohn Poimiroo2016-11-08 11:31:172017-09-26 14:43:58Bishop: Look East to See the Sunset
Blue oak, Folsom Lake sunset (11/7/16) John Poimiroo
Autumn sunsets are the best of the year, particularly as seen across the Central Valley.
Sunsets are particularly spectacular in autumn because blue light is scattered easiest by nitrogen and oxygen air molecules, whereas “longer wavelengths — reds and oranges – are not scattered as much by air molecules,” The Weather Channel reports.
During sunrise and sunset, sunlight must pass through more of the atmosphere before we see it. TWC explains, “so it comes into contact with even more molecules in the air.” And, “As days grow shorter, the skies at sunset glow with the most spectacular hues, blooming with pinks, reds and oranges.”
Autumn weather patterns also bring drier, cleaner air from the north, allowing more colors of the spectrum to “make it through to our eyes without getting scattered by particles in the air, producing brilliant sunsets and sunrises that can look red, orange, yellow or even pink,” concludes TWC.
In the Central Valley, agricultural haze from farmers burning off their fields adds carbon molecules to the air, making the sunsets downright awe inspiring.
[wunderground location=”El Dorado Hills, CA” numdays=”4″ showdata=”daynames,icon,date,conditions,highlow” layout=”simple”]
http://www.californiafallcolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/logo-1.png00John Poimiroohttp://www.californiafallcolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/logo-1.pngJohn Poimiroo2016-11-07 17:28:122016-11-09 21:49:23Sunsets Over The Central Valley
http://www.californiafallcolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/logo-1.png00John Poimiroohttp://www.californiafallcolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/logo-1.pngJohn Poimiroo2016-11-07 15:01:532016-11-09 21:51:55Sequoia National Park - A Palette of Color
Uvas Canyon County Park, Morgan Hill (11/5/16) Tracy Zhou
Uvas Canyon, near Morgan Hill in the southern Santa Cruz Mountains, is a cool, refreshing forested getaway for residents of Silicon Valley (Santa Clara Valley).
It is a Santa Clara County Park with 7.2 miles of hiking trails including a one-mile waterfall loop that travels along Swanson Creek past several waterfalls and cascades.
At peak, bigleaf maple provide bright yellow contrast to emerald mosses that grow upon boulders in the creek.
Color spotter Tracy Zhou visited on Saturday, to find the maples nearly past peak, though still colorful.
The forest trail is carpeted with buff-colored spent leaves.
Uvas Canyon County Park, Morgan Hill – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
[wunderground location=”Morgan Hill, CA” numdays=”4″ showdata=”daynames,icon,date,conditions,highlow” layout=”simple”]
Uvas Canyon County Park, Morgan Hill (11/5/16) Tracy Zhou
Uvas Canyon County Park, Morgan Hill (11/5/16) Tracy Zhou
Bold color remains to be enjoyed in Yosemite National Park though most of the maple and dogwood have another week of peak before they’re gone, reports color spotter Son H Nguyen.
Son traveled the Wawona Road (CA-41 – south entrance) from Yosemite Valley to Glacier Point on Saturday and found the color from Tunnel View to Glacier Point to be “amazing. Golden oak dominated the mountain, dogwood and maples just turned.”
One of the most photographed fall color locations in the national park is Fern Spring.
It is passed soon after entering the floor of Yosemite Valley (by CA-120 [north entrance] or CA-140 [west entrance]) and turning onto South Side Drive.
Fern Spring is tucked away in a small turnout surrounded by bigleaf maple, black oak and dogwood.
Fern Spring, Yosemite Valley (11/5/16) Son H Nguyen
South Side Drive, Yosemite Valley (11/5/16) Son H Nguyen
Yosemite Valley (11/5/16) Son H Nguyen
Merced River (11/5/16) Son H Nguyen
Black oak, Yosemite Valley (11/5/16) Son H Nguyen
Son found the color at Fern Spring to be past peak, though the fallen leaves floating in its dark pool and occasional pink and yellow highlights from surrounding dogwood and bigleaf maple still make it worth visiting for a few more days.
Color along the Merced River is near past peak, though glimpses of beautiful color are still hanging in there.
The best color to be found in Yosemite Valley are the black oaks near the base of Yosemite Falls that have turned bright orange. A few have gone “straight to brown, already.”
Vince Piercey was there this past Thursday and captured some of the turning leaves beside Lower Yosemite Fall.
Yosemite National Park – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW! – Best color to be seen is among the black oak at the base of Yosemite Falls.
http://www.californiafallcolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/logo-1.png00John Poimiroohttp://www.californiafallcolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/logo-1.pngJohn Poimiroo2016-11-07 08:29:472016-11-09 21:47:38Yosemite: At Peak for a Week
Lavezzola Creek, Downieville (11/5/16) Philip Reedy
Lavezzola Creek, Downieville (11/5/16) Philip Reedy
Lavezzola Creek, Downieville (11/5/16) Philip Reedy
Last weekend’s storm kept a lot of photographers and color spotters from visiting locations where autumn color was peaking.
That happened to Philip Reedy, who returned to Downieville, in the northern Gold Country, yesterday to find the color just past peak along the North Yuba River and spent bigleaf maple leaves washed onto its banks.
He noted that a few bigleaf maples persist in speckling the forest with yellow, though it’s evident from his pictures that while the fly fishing is surely fun, fall color spotting is at the end of its run.
For the best fall color now in the northern Mother Lode, Philip recommends lower elevations along CA-49 on the drive to Downieville, the North Yuba River west of Downieville, at lower elevations along CA-49 and beside Lavezzola Creek, north of Downieville.
Downieville – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW! – Spots of bright color can still be seen near Downieville at the northern terminus of the Gold Country, though it is fading.
