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Holy Trinity!

Black oak, Trinity Alps (11/1/20) Leor Pantilat

No sooner had I posted a disappointing report about Trinity County than I opened the next email to find Leor Pantilat’s vibrant study of peak color in the Trinity Alps. I herewith retract everything I wrote in the previous post.

Turns out, we were looking in the wrong place. Leor was in the right place at the right time. Peak fall color does exist in Trinity County and it’s gorgeous. GO NOW!

Black oak, Trinity Alps (11/1/20) Leor Pantilat

Leor sends back images – in this First Report – of some of the most colorful examples of yellow, orange and red black oak we’ve seen. At first glance, their orange-yellow fall color and the size of the plant resembles Brewer oak (Q. garryana var. breweri), which is rarely posted on CaliforniaFallColor.com and is widely distributed throughout the Klamath and southern Cascade ranges, including the Trinity Alps, but Leor identified them as “scrub black oak.” On closer inspection, their lobes are more spiky than rounded, a clue that these shrubbery-sized oaks are, indeed, black oak.

There are all kinds of color spotters. Those whose biggest effort is to step out of a vehicle and set up a tripod to … well, Leor.

Over the years, Leor and his wife, Erica Namba, have blazed trails finding peaking fall color in the most remote corners of the Eastern Sierra, Central Coast, High Sierra, Marble Mountains and now, the Trinity Alps. This hike climbed into the Trinity Alps Wilderness on trails not previously shown here.

Ferns, Trinity Alps (11/1/20) Leor Pantilat

On this trek, he photographed more variety than we’ve seen in many other regions, varieties of golden and vermillion ferns, brilliant crimson knotweed, rosy dogwood, yellow bigleaf maple and the oh, so beautifully rusty-orange toned black oak.

Leor reported that the dogwood are on their “way out,” while Indian rhubarb are “coming in.” Leor relates, “most of my photos were taken above 5,000′ which explains the discrepancy of the reports from Hwy 3 which is below 3,000′.  That said, I thought the color in the Lewiston area (cottonwood and willow) was coming along so it will probably peak there in the next week or two.

“Perhaps some areas in Trinity County won’t be as vibrant this year since it was a dry winter and big leaf maple prefer wet years for an ideal color show.  That’s in contrast to the Sierra where it seems like the aspen and cottonwood do better in dry years (less leaf fungus in dry years?),” Leor observed.

California fall color is not just hanging from branches in the Trinity Alps, it decorates the edges of mountain trails and is reflected in sky-blue lakes. On this sojourn, Leor found it all.

Click to enlarge and scroll through the beauty he found.

Trinity Alps (11/1/20) Leor Pantilat

The Trinity Alps wilderness is declared CaliforniaFallColor.com’s Hike of the Week. CLICK HERE for a variety of moderate to difficult-rated routes.

  • Trinity Alps (5,000′) – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!