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Always on Time

Dixiana, 1912 Shay Locomotive, Roaring Camp RR, Felton (11/9/19) Melani Clark

A good railroad always arrives and departs on time.

The same can be said of fall color at the Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad in Felton (Santa Cruz Mountains), where bigleaf maple, western sycamore and black oak dress its historical train depot with yellow, chartreuse, lime and orange each November.

This past Saturday, Melani Clark, superintendent of the railroad, took this image of steam rising and autumn color falling as the Dixiana stood ready for its run through the redwoods to Bear Mountain.

Autumn weather has been kind to the Santa Cruz mountains where warm, clear days have created ideal conditions to enjoy a walk through a redwood forest and train rides to the summit of Bear Mountain and down to Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay.

  • Roaring Camp Railroads (285′) – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
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Danville Delights

Osage Station Park, Danville (11/11/19) Vishal Mishra

Osage Station Park in Danville was so named for the Osage orange orchard that was once tended, there.

Three of the original planted osage oranges (hedge apples) still grow in the park. Their odd, knobby, spider-repelling fruit turn fluorescent green in fall.

Though, it is the park’s grove of towering maple trees and their golden canopy that truly delights autumn visitors, as depicted by Vishal Mishra above.

  • Osage Station Park, Danville (358′) – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
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Danville’s Urban Forest

Downtown Danville (11/9/19) Ryan Boyd

Danville loves its trees. The East Bay town’s symbol is its 350-year-old Danville Oak.

Each year in November, the Town gathers on Diablo Road at the base of the tree to celebrate the annual Tree Lighting Ceremony. The ceremony is a festive evening that includes a visit from Father Christmas and the Snow Angel escorted by local high school bands.

Through the years, the Danville oak has provided support for signs announcing a special birthday or anniversary for a Town citizen.

The Danville Oak isn’t the only tree celebrated. The entire village of Danville is forested with landmark trees that for the next two weeks – as Ryan Boyd’s photos show – will provide peak color.

Danville’s annual tree lighting ceremony occurs on Friday, Nov. 29.

  • Danville (358′) – Near Peak (50-75%) GO NOW!
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Open Your “Golden” Gate

Fog, San Francisco (12/11/18) Darrell Sano

Fog is enshrouding San Francisco’s fall color in a atmospheric glow. On a visit to The City, Darrell Sano found it magically mist-ical. 

  • San Francisco – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
San Francisco (12/11/18) Darrell Sano
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California Gold

California Gold (Gingko biloba) and Berkeley Blue, Hearst Mining Circle, UC Berkeley (12/11/18) Jeff King

Gingko biloba, Hearst Mining Circle, UC Berkeley (12/11/18) Jeff King

“California Gold,” is one of UC Berkeley’s school colors. It’s also a color seen peaking at Hearst Mining Circle, across from Evans Hall.

UC Berkeley color spotter Jeff King discovered California Gold among venerable gingko biloba when crossing campus, today.

Looking up, he saw the other of Berkeley’s school colors, a sky filled with peak “Berkeley Blue.” 

  • Gingko biloba, UC Berkeley – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
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Fall in the Fog

Briones Regional Park (12/9/18) Darrell Sano

For most of the year, fog hugs the California coast. It’s a morning phenomenon, burning off by midday.

However, from November to March, the combination of warm moist ground blanketed by cold, still air creates Tule fog a thick ground fog that settles into the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys and pushes west toward the coast where it seeps into valleys before being blocked by coastal hills.

Briones Regional Park (12/9/18) Darrell Sano

Tule fog is thickest in December and early January. Think Sherlock Holmes’ London-thick. At times even street lamps or headlights cannot cut through it for more than a few feet.

Horrid stacks of vehicles come to screeching, cataclysmic collisions when it is at its worst. The CHP advises:

  • Check weather reports before driving on highways during Tule Fog months;
  • If you know it will be foggy, consider delaying your trip until it clears;
  • If you’re on the road and run into fog: drive with headlights on low beam (high beams create a wall of white light that keeps you from seeing ahead);
  • Watch for CHP pace cars to guide you;
  • Avoid crossing traffic lanes;
  • The denser the fog the slower you should go (if you can’t see more than three lane stripes, move to the right and slow down);
  • Drive with the driver’s window open to hear traffic ahead;
  • Stay in a lane, don’t straddle a line (if you can’t see the lane stripes, it’s too unsafe to drive – get off the highway);
  • Move around stalled or stopped vehicles, don’t sit behind them;
  • Do not stop on highways except in emergencies; and
  • If you must stop or your car is disabled, don’t stay there. Move to the far right shoulder of the road and get off the roadway, turn off all lights and get everyone out of your car and far from it (common fatal accidents in fog are caused by speeding drivers attracted to follow whatever tail lights/car they see ahead, even if it is stopped).

Bay Area color spotter Darrell Sano decided to take one of his favorite hikes today. What he didn’t expect was that he’d be in the thick of it.

Briones Regional Park (12/9/18) Darrell Sano

The sun struggled to burn through the cloudy atmosphere. As he drove through the Caldecott Tunnel toward Martinez, “a band of fog diagonally covered the homes above the highway. Once through the tunnel, the fog was even thicker.” he wrote … the opposite of the Bay Area’s usual fog pattern.

At Briones Regional Park, the air was damp with fog, with no chance at all to view the vistas that once topped surrounding hills, though his aerosolic envelopment made the hike all the more special.

Darrell found the last remnants of fall color carpeting the woodland floor, mostly ochre, without saturation, Past Peak, though still beautiful.

Though obscured by fog, faint color, subdued but still evident, could be seen. 

Briones Regional Park (12/9/18) Darrell Sano

Apparitions emerged, a distant hiker, cows cloaked by mist, heard mooing but rarely seen.

As he walked through the diffused air, he thought about his last hike in August along the same trail and how different it was, realizing that our search for fall color is often filled with unexpected surprises. 

  • Briones Regional Park, Martinez – Past Peak, You Missed It.
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Recycled Christmas Trees

Green Christmas Tree, San Francisco (2018) Friends of the Urban Forest

Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF) is providing San Franciscans with a way to bring seasonal cheer into their homes, while supporting the planting of trees throughout The City.

In partnership with the San Francisco Department of the Environment and Hayes Valley Art Works, Friends of the Urban Forest offers living, potted Christmas trees in November and December, each year.

A tax-deductible donation ($75 early bird and $95 after December 1), provides rental of a three-to-six-foot-tall, non-traditional living tree to bring home for decoration and enjoyment. 

After the holidays, trees returned to FUF are planted in San Francisco as part of the organization’s Neighborhood Tree Planting program.

Popular choices include PrimroseFruitless Olive, and Fern Pine. Unfortunately, deciduous trees aren’t used in the program, as they’ve dropped their leaves, though anything that gets more trees planted in our cities is good for the air and the spirit … including the Christmas spirit. 

To learn more about FUF’s Green Christmas Tree program, CLICK HERE

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Seasonal Confetti

California sycamore and redwoods, Roaring Camp RR, Felton (12/2/18) John Poimiroo

Sycamore had scattered their confetti at Roaring Camp in Felton today, as dads and little boys watched a steam engine take on water.

Few leaves remained clinging to branches near the railroad, though beyond the meadow a few stalwarts stood sentry, holding chestnut-brown bunches of them until the slightest breeze would free their leaves to tumble through the air.

It is definitely Past Peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains, though an autumn air prevails. 

  • Felton – Past Peak, YOU MISSED IT.
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More Livermore Sycamore

California sycamore, Sycamore Grove Park, Livermore (11/24/18) Marc Crumpler

Who said, “More is Less”?

That certainly isn’t true when more Livermore sycamores appear in a fall color submission.

Marc Crumpler shares these colorful and distorted Western sycamore (Platanus racemosa) peaking at Sycamore Grove Park in Livermore.

California sycamore are a wonderfully sculptural tree. D.C. Peattie (Eva Begley writes in Plants of Northern California) described them in Natural History of Western Trees as spreading along the ground with branches pointing upward, “like a horse scratching his back on the ground and kicking up his legs,”

Unlike American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) and London Plane that tend to carry chartreuse-colored leaves that mottle to buff, California sycamore are bright orange, sometimes red or yellow. Marc’s photographs show strong examples of California sycamore at peak. 

  • Livermore Valley – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
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Livermore Valley

Western Sycamore, Mines Rd, Livermore (11/27/18) Anirudh Natekar

Pleasanton is aptly named.

Located in the Livermore Valley, northeast of the Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley), Pleasanton is the wealthiest mid-sized city in America, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and was ranked by USA Today in 2014 as #4 among America’s 50 best cities in which to live.

As pleasant as the town is, I wish they’d kept its original name, El Alisal, The Sycamores. As, in late November Pleasanton is a place to find beautiful fall color, including among its sycamores.

Anirudh Natekar explored Pleasanton and Livermore yesterday, scoring a First Report and sending these views of the beauty to be seen there. Hurry as it’s just about gone. 

Tesla Rd, Livermore (11/27/18) Anirudh Natekar
  • Livermore (495′) – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
  • Pleasanton (351′) – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!