Indian Summer in the Shasta Cascade

Indian Summer is the “spell of warm weather after the first frost.”

This American expression was first recorded in 1778 in a letter written to England, though its origins are uncertain.

Some attribute it to having come from areas inhabited by Native-Americans or because Indians were the first to describe it.

Regardless of how it got coined, it is a pleasant period of warm weather following an early frost. That is happening now in the Shasta Cascade, where last week snow fell (see below). This week, temperatures are in the 70s and Peak color – appropriately – is being seen in the Indian Valley of Plumas County (northern Sierra).

Local color spotter Jeff Luke Titcomb writes that color is at peak, though that it will – like an Indian summer – soon be gone. Black oak dominate with deep orange leaves contrasting with their black limbs.

Yellow, chartreuse and red pop out at points along CA-89 and CA-70 on the route north, leaving the Sierra and entering the lower cascades at Lassen Volcanic National Park.

Indian Valley, CA-89 – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!