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Home is Where Fall Color Is

My daughter at Home, Mammoth Lakes (October 2022) Lara Kaylor

Last year I missed fall color in California. My family and I moved to the Midwest for an off-the-beaten path adventure and briefly traded pockets of gold set against grand landscapes for swaths of oranges and reds. While the extra color was a sight to be seen, there was something missing in my mind.

When fall happens in California, especially in the Eastern Sierra, there is a bustle of activity that goes with it — hiking, biking, fishing, and (my favorite) camping. These activities take on new life with fall color as their backdrop and this year, I couldn’t have been happier to be back home for the season.

Fall in the Eastern Sierra is known for supplying unreal landscapes beyond your wildest dreams. Pops of color set against the grandeur of the mountains make leaf-peeping in our region completely unique, and this year was no exception.

The past six weeks have been full of beautiful, and colorful, pockets of wonder around the region, but like all good things, fall must come to an end so we can look forward to it again next year. Currently, everything above 7,200′ in our region is past-peak. If you come up this weekend you might find some hidden color, but this is officially our last report of the season.

Snow has begun to fall and while right now it has left a light dusting that simply sprinkles the fall colors with a little extra magic, we expect bigger storms in the next week that will blow and freeze the leaves away. As the season comes to an end, we hope you’ll scroll back through the photos on this site from time to time to remind yourself of the past season and build your excitement for next year.

  • Mammoth Lakes (7,881′) – Past Peak, You Missed It.
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Orange Friday

Sunset, Folsom Lake (11/26/21) John Poimiroo

Orange Friday (the day following Thanksgiving Day) ended with a cobalt, purple, crimson, orange and yellow sunset above the Sacramento Valley.

While some chose to get up early to stand in lines at shopping centers, we chose to rise late, eat pancakes in our pajamas, hike to Folsom Lake, play ping pong, shoot arrows at targets, take silly pictures of cousins and watch a college football game (my team lost).

Then, everyone sat around the TV to see the new Home Alone movie, but when someone said, “You oughta see the sunset,” cameras and cell phones were grabbed and we rushed out onto the porch.

We didn’t save a dime at a sale, but what we experienced on Orange Friday was far more valuable.
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An Urban Oasis

Frémont cottonwood, Mormon Island Wetlands State Park, Folsom (10/31/20) John Poimiroo

The cottonwood of Mormon Island Wetlands State Park crown a largely ignored woodland island, surrounded by a sea of Folsom homes and roads.

Within the urban enclave, Frémont and black cottonwood; black, blue, valley and leather oak; brown dogwood; northern California black walnut; California buckeye; black elderberry; California grape; western redbud; Pacific poison oak and various types of willows crowd out urban sprawl.

It is rare that so large and wild a place is entirely contained within any California city. However, an undulating landscape littered with fallen branches and shrubs makes Mormon Island Wetlands a difficult place to visit.

The California Department of Parks and Recreation placed a new parking area beside the wetlands when Green Valley Road was widened, recently, but that hasn’t attracted visitors. The lot, though open, is always empty, just like its forest.

What’s needed to make this special place slightly more approachable is an interpreted trail into the tangle of trees and shrubs, one that invites visitation lightly while explaining the diverse life to be found within this verdant oasis.

  • Mormon Island Wetlands State Park, Folsom (377′) – Patchy (10-50%)
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Autumn Dusk

Sunset, El Dorado Hills (9/26/20) John Poimiroo

Autumn sunsets have become increasingly colorful in recent years, due to the increasing frequency that California has burned.

I long to return to times when the sunsets weren’t as dazzling, when red balls wouldn’t descend through the haze, when the air didn’t smell like a campfire, when friends and family weren’t evacuated, when forests weren’t closed, when the most beautiful orange in autumn was seen on the trees, not in the sky.

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Look, Don’t Touch

Surveyor’s Meadow, S. Fork Rd., Bishop Creek Canyon (9/27//20) Bruce Wendler

The nearest we can figure about what’s open or closed in the Eastern Sierra is that the USDA Forest Service, despite its declarations, seems to have a “look, don’t touch” approach to visiting Inyo National Forest.

Today, we received numerous reports and photos from color spotters who drove through Bishop Creek Canyon and along the June Lake Loop to view Near Peak to Patchy fall color, this past weekend. They reported that campgrounds, trails and parking lots are closed, with several barricaded. At least one spotter spoke to a USDA FS ranger who said the maximum fine for entering a closed area is $5,000.

The problem arises in that CA-168 and CA-158, as state highways, remain open to vehicular traffic even though signs on US 395 warn that Inyo National Forest is closed. The contradiction gives the impression that it’s OK to stop to see fall color along these highways, when it is not.

For example, the photo of Surveyor’s Meadow (above) was taken beside S. Lake Road where – according to the photographer – no restrictions were noticed, enforced or evident. Yet, the photographer took the photo inside Inyo NF and therefore could have been fined, even though he thought he was doing the correct thing by not entering one of the closed areas. He believed that only the barricaded areas were closed and that the highway was not part of the forest.

If the USDA FS is sincere about closing Inyo NF to hiking, camping, driving and fishing, as stated by them, then roads leading to prime fall color viewing areas should be clearly signed, informing motorists that stopping to look at fall color is not permitted.

  • Surveyor’s Meadow, S. Fork, Bishop Creek Canyon (8,975′) – INYO NF CLOSED
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