Archive for category: Photography

As I begin to type this post, the wind is whistling past my office in El Dorado Hills. Dramatic clouds float overhead and I look out across the rolling contours of the Sierra Nevada foothills, brightened with spots of color.

Reports so far have been that the color is holding firm on most trees, despite gusting winds. So, we’re hopeful that, come Monday, there’ll still be lots of peak color to enjoy in the Eastern and Northern Sierra and Shasta Cascade.

Regardless, CaliforniaFallColor.com expresses thanks to those color spotters who contributed photos taken before and after this past week’s storm.

Wednesday…

Darrell Sano reported that he’d spent a wonderful day beginning with sunrise at Minaret Vista, then he drove to Devil’s Postpile National Monument. On the one-lane road, “there were vistas of color, full trees at peak.

He found Devil’s Postpile to be other worldly “in the chill of fall morning (31 F). The hexagonal columnar basalt was verdant with lichen.

Sotcher Lake was serene. Symmetric reflections on the water were so transfixing, that he “could have stayed for hours.”

A Reds Meadow, he found beautiful horses in a nearby field, then hiked to lower Rainbow Falls for more exhilaration where water splashed upon the rocks, nurturing color on the banks.

Thursday…

Sharon and Bill Peterson followed our advice to find lovely color filling the Hope Valley.

 

Rainbows teased travel writer Janet Fulwood all the way home, as she drove from the Carson Valley through Lake Tahoe on her way back to Sacramento. At moments, “it was too windy to even open the door.”

 

 

 

Nancy Wright spent two and a half days in the Mammoth Area, concluding that Friday’s heavy winds and rain “really started stripping the aspen of their leaves.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carol Novacek was driving south from June Lake on US 395 on Friday, writing she’d expected to see a lot less color, since it had been so windy and rainy the previous day, but was impressed by the beauty still seen from the highway, now accented with peaks dusted with snow. At Convict Lake, the stands were “glorious at full peak” and as she sped past Tom’s Place, Carol captured caught a blurred image of golden aspen still surrounding the community.

Saturday…

Mono County color spotter Jeff Simpson writes that “despite intense wind, we still have plenty of color to be seen.” He visited June Lake and Lundy Canyon, yesterday, returning with these images. And as his photo of Conway Summit attests (top of post), even trees that have lost leaves can provide a beautiful picture.

 

 

 

 

 

Daniel Stas took our advice and headed to June Lake today for one last look before the storm arrived. Here are the wonders he found.

 

Color spotters from across California sent images this week of what they captured.  Most came from US 395 in the Eastern Sierra, which had its last great week of peak. Here’s a postcard collection. Click to enlarge.

Mariusz Jeglinski shared this collection of photographs taken on one day in the Eastern Sierra.  One day, one word… Beautiful!

Pushkar Gejji sent these impressions of the Eastern Sierra.

Ivan Alo journeyed to the spot where Greg Newbry took our masthead image and provides his take.

Then, he shows us the beauty to be found in the Owens Valley, when we open ourselves to seeing it.

North Coast color spotter Walter Gabler traveled from Humboldt County to Mendocino County on US, and reported very little color along the route.  Walt says Mendocino’s vineyards are still very green and have changed little since he took this shot last month, though harvest was completed two weeks ago.

Elsewhere in Humboldt County, Gabriel Leete found similarly disappointing bigleaf maple with dry leaves at the East Fork Campground, past Willow Creek.  Several spotters have voiced concern over what effect another year of drought might have on the bigleaf maple and aspen which have struggled in places throughout California.