Hazelgreen Dip Glows in Yosemite NP

Two miles south of the Big Oak Flat entrance station (northwest entrance, Yosemite National Park), CA-120 (called the Big Oak Flat Road inside the national park) dips near Hazelgreen. There,  dogwood, ferns, willows and bigleaf maple are putting on an irridescent show of pink, rose, yellow, gold and lime. Simon Lau scores a First Report for this area, which has long been a favorite of Yosemite color watchers.

Down in Yosemite Valley, bigleaf maple and dogwood are peaking, as well. By the end of the month, however, they’ll have dropped their leaves and the black oaks will have turned deep orange in contrast to their black branches and trunks.

By this time in Autumn, until the late 1800s, native Ahwahneechee, the band of Miwok Indians who called Yosemite Valley their home, would have burned off the Valley’s grasses, to make it easier to collect black oak acorns, a principal food and trading item.

On his return from the Eastern Sierra, color spotter Gene Miller passed over Tioga Pass, capturing this shot of Tioga Lake with a touch of gold surviving at 9,638′, scoring another First Report, then traveled into Yosemite Valley to get a shot of the pioneer sugar maple planted near the Yosemite Chapel nearing the end of its peak.

Hazelgreen Dip, near Big Oak Flat Entrance Station, CA-120, Yosemite National Park (4,400′) – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!

Tioga Pass, Yosemite National Park (9,943′) – Past Peak – You Missed It.

Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park (4,000′) – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW! – Dogwood, cottonwood and bigleaf maple are peaking. Black oak will peak at the end of October.