Orange Friday

Red maple, El Dorado Hills (11/26/19) John Poimiroo

There are three ways to spend the Friday following Thanksgiving Day:

  • Stand in line waiting to purchase stuff that will soon be forgotten,
  • Sit at home watching football games or
  • See the last bright splashes of fall color with friends and family.

My Orange Friday will be spent outside with friends and family, reveling in the moment when autumn brings us together.

, ,

Giving Thanks and Looking Back at 2019

On this Thanksgiving Day, CaliforniaFallColor.com is thankful to the many color spotters and photographers who contributed reports, photographs and videos in 2019.

They include (from first leaf): Jeff Simpson, Martha Fletcher, Robert Kermen, Bob Simms, Lori Quillen, Julie Kirby, Donna Mercer, Dakota Snider, Jeff Luke Titcomb, Michael Beatley, Jared Smith, Anirudh Natekar, Michelle Pontoni, Justin Legge, John Ehrenfeld, Aaron Thom, Philip Reedy, Suzanne Kovacs, Mike Schaper, Alena Nicholas, Trent Vierra, Kathy Jonokuchi, Leor Pantilat, Dylan Ren, Dan Rastler, Ryan Boyd, Gigi de Jong, Laura Jean, Mark Harding, Elliot McGucken, Steve Shinn, Alicia Vennos, Liz Grans, Ann Hale-Smith, Clayton Peoples, Logan Alexander, Terry Willard, Kurt Lawson, Risa Wyatt, Jeri Rangel, Chien-Chang Kyle Chen, Fares Alti, Kent Gordon, Lance Pifer, Walt Gabler, Laura Christman, Gene Miller, Dan Varvais, Ravi Ranganathan, Jun Hong, Kathleen DiGregorio, Steve Arita, Roger Zhang, Mel Fechter, Shanda Ochs, Dan Mata, Gabriel Leete, Max Forster, Benjamin Vu, Son Nguyen, Vishal Mishra, Bea Ahbeck, Niven Le, Mark Hanning-Lee, Frank McDonough, Chance Gordon, Charles Hooker, Jim Adams, Susan Hanlon, Gillian Espinosa, Melani Clark, Mike Caffey, Anson Davalos, Deepa Yvaraj, Allison Hastings, Ben Carlson, Mohammed Hossain, John Jackson and Ron Tyler, who produced the above video.

Special thanks are expressed to Inyo County Tourism, Bishop Area Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau, Mono County Tourism, Mammoth Lakes Tourism, Redding Convention & Visitors Bureau, and the Shasta Cascade Wonderland Association for underwriting California Fall Color, and to the many reporters and media who carried our reports and gave attention to what we have shown about California’s fall color.

If we missed you, please know it wasn’t intentional. We are truly indebted to every contributor.

Of course, this list is incomplete without mentioning my wife, Joan, who has driven the car and pulled it to the shoulder so that I could jump out to photograph particularly beautiful locations; humored my recording of color percentages, species and elevations; pointed out spectacular color; and tolerated my exuberance in showing her countless stunning photographs taken by our contributors.

Of course, our deepest thanks go to the many tens of thousands of people who have read, followed, reacted and commented here and on our social media pages. You are, after all, the reason we do this.

Above is our video impression of autumn in California, this year. We produce a new video each autumn. To see them all, CLICK HERE.

The photographs selected for this year’s video represent: what happened this autumn, the extent and diversity of fall color across the state, and some of the finest photographs taken in 2019.

If you would like your photographs considered for inclusion in next autumn’s video, submit “horizontal” pictures of fall color taken in places not often photographed. As competition is stiffest among pictures taken at the most photographed destinations.

Autumn doesn’t end today. It continues for nearly a month longer. We’ll continue to post photos and reports, as received. Though today, we begin to dial back reports and will post them less frequently. We’ve also stopped sending  weekly reports to meteorologists, travel and outdoor writers.

So, enjoy your Thanksgiving Day and plan an Orange Friday of fall color spotting, tomorrow.

See you next autumn, dude.

California – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW! – In our hearts, California is always peaking.

, ,

Looking Back at Autumns Past

Tomorrow, we post our annual Thanksgiving Day message and video review of 2019.

It will be our eighth annual “California Fall Color Looks Back” video. As, although CaliforniaFallColor.com went live in 2009, it wasn’t until 2012 that we began posting video reviews.

In advance of seeing “California Fall Color Looks Back at 2019,” we thought you might like to see those from years past.

Ron Tyler created each video. Ron is head of the Tyler Marketing Group, an El Dorado Hills-based marketing communications consultancy with expertise in social media, product marketing and video.

Each of the photographs selected for these videos is representative of what happened that autumn, the extent and diversity of fall color seen across the state, and some of the finest photographs taken that year.

,

Statewide Summary

North Lake, Bishop Creek Canyon (9/30/16) Elliot McGucken

A year ago, CaliforniaFallColor.com was reporting more orange in the Eastern Sierra than Sunkist has. What a difference a year makes.

This autumn, Peak color is arriving a week and a half late with Near Peak color only just reported from Virginia Lakes and Sagehen Summit, both in Mono County (US 395).

The late arrival of fall color – which historically has peaked in a few locations before the first day of autumn – has exasperated Eastern Sierra fall color observers and complicated answering whether autumn’s show is on time or not.

That’s because locations in the Northern Sierra and Southern Cascades have filed photos showing Patchy color, well before the region’s mid-October norm for fall color.

Most definitely, fall color is late in the Eastern Sierra, but it’s too early to say it will be late everywhere.

What seems to be certain is that there’s plenty of lush foliage in the forests, because of last winter’s heavy snow and rainfall, meaning that the display of fall color this autumn could be one of the best (should weather conditions permit).

Ideal conditions for the development of vibrant fall color require: healthy trees, clear skies, warm days and cold nights. So far, Mother Nature has been providing those conditions.

Now that peak color is appearing, it will spread rapidly with Peak color likely to appear this weekend and next week (Sept. 27 – Oct. 2) at elevations above 9,000’ in the Eastern Sierra. It then descends by elevation at a general rate of 500 feet per week, meaning that if it is peaking in one canyon at 9,500’, the following week it will be peaking at 9,000’ and so on.

There are a few exceptions to this rule of thumb, of course. Some locations (Sagehen Summit, as an example) peak earlier, while others (Tioga Pass) peak later than similar elevations.

High elevations do not inhibit seeing fall color, as paved roads lead right to aspen groves and tree-lined lakes in numerous canyons along the eastern side of the Sierra, making fall color viewing easily reached.

Elsewhere in the Sierra Nevada mostly Patchy color is being seen with Hope Valley (CA-88, Carson Pass) still a week away from Peak color. Yosemite, the Western Sierra and the Gold Country will peak from mid October to mid November

California’s vineyards peak by grape variety, between mid October and late November.

The Shasta Cascade region (northeast California) is reporting early patchy color at locations, but the region will not be peaking until mid October.

Southern California fall color spotters have not yet reported from the San Bernardino, San Gabriel, Santa Monica, San Jacinto or Laguna mountains. These areas are typically mid October to late November peaks, depending on location.

And, California’s urban forests peak in November, its deserts in December.

Finally, we can admit that – for the moment – Sunkist has more orange than California has fall color.

,

Super Bloom Spring

Superbloom, Temblor Range, Carrizo Plain National Monument (Sumikophoto |Dreamstime.com)

With above-record rainfall drenching California this winter, wildflower super blooms are possible this Spring in Death Valley (late – Feb.), Anza Borrego State Park (mid-Mar.), the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve near Lancaster (early-Apr.) and the Carrizo Plain National Monument (early-Apr.).

Tiffany Camhi of KQED, San Francisco’s public television station, reported today that with a little more rain, a super bloom of poppies, lupine, owl’s clover and other wildflowers is possible.

The National Park Service reports that “The best blooms are triggered by an early, winter-type rainstorm in September or October, followed by an El Niño weather pattern that brings above average rainfall to the Desert Southwest.”

What’s needed for this rare profusion of wildflowers are preceding years of drought and massive winter rainfalls. Both have happened, so it’s “possible.”

,

Winter Happens Here Too

Red Lake Creek, Hope Valley (11/30/18) Philip Reedy

Autumn ended yesterday.

Weeks ago, on the last day of November, Philip Reedy was traveling through the Hope Valley when he stopped to capture these wintry images of “everyone’s favorite cabin in the snow.”

We delayed posting his pictures until today, as they embody the transition from warm fall to cold winter colors, showing aspen bereft of their autumn gold, now encased in white.

Dude, winter happens here too. 

Red Lake Creek, Hope Valley (11/30/18) Philip Reedy
  • California Fall Color – Past Peak, You Missed It.
, , , ,

November ends, not the color

LA County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, Arcadia (11/28/18) Frank McDonough

Today is the last day of November, but there’s still another 20 days of autumn ahead.

Frank McDonough of the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden demonstrates what’s ahead in today’s post.

California’s arboreta and botanic gardens are in their own, presently, with holiday displays blending with final bursts of fall color. To find an arboretum near you, CLICK HERE

  • Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, Arcadia – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
, ,

Giving Thanks and Looking Back at 2018

On this Thanksgiving Day, CaliforniaFallColor.com is thankful to the many color spotters and photographers who contributed reports, photographs and videos in 2018.

They include (from first turned leaf reported): Jeff Luke Titcomb, Lisa Wilkerson-Willis, Anson Davalos, Walt Gabler, Chico Hiking Association, Lance Pifer, Peter Asco, Liz Grans, Alicia Vennos, Cindy Hoover, Michael Beatley, David Senesac, Kathy Smith, Jared Smith, Elliot McGucken, Will Ridgway, Ursula Esser, Toru Takahashi, Clayton Peoples, Herb Hwang, David Olden, Rodney Chai, Mark Harding, Alena Nicholas, Gigi de Jong, Matthew Pacheco, Jeff Simpson, Julia Ellis, Martha Fletcher, Josh Wray, Shelley Hunter, Dave Butler, Philip Reedy, Nick King, Todd Backman, Larry Salmi, Douglas Van Kirk, Bruce Wendler, Darrell Sano, Lisa May, Shanda Ochs, Robert Kermen, Connie Varvais, Dan Varvais, Mike Caffrey, Surjanto Suradji, Jeri Rangel, Adam Potts, Daniel Danzig, Tracy Zhou, Colin Birdseye, Bonnie Nordby, Cathy Tsao, Paul Kim, Peter Chun, Ming Lo, Jeff Hemming, Jennifer Cornell, Toru Takahashi, Joe Pollini, Patti Jananoski, Leor Pantilat, Steve Shinn, Roberto Ferido, Jerry Sy, Jason Paine, Gene Miller, Kathleen DiGiorgio, Crys Black, Benjamin Vu, Kirsten Liske, Laura Jean, Ravi Ranganathan, John Dinsmore, Tor Lacy, Candace Gregory, Sophie Beaney, Julie Kirby, John King, Thomas Haraikawa, Kathy Jonokuchi, Jake Puchalski, Jean Pan, Dylan Ren, Mark Harding, Melani Clark, Namita Mishra, Max Forster, Gabriel Leete, David Sharp, Ken Locke and Ron Tyler, who produced the above video.

We’re also grateful to readers who posted photos and reports to our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages (you are too numerous to list).

Special thanks are expressed to Inyo County Tourism, Bishop Area Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau, Mono County Tourism, Mammoth Lakes Tourism, Redding Convention & Visitors Bureau, Shasta Cascade Wonderland Association, and The California Parks Company for underwriting California Fall Color, and to the many reporters and media who carried our reports and gave attention to what we have shown about California’s fall color.

If we missed thanking you here, please know it wasn’t intentional. We are truly indebted to every contributor.

Of course, this list is incomplete without mentioning my wife, Joan, who has driven the car and pulled it to the shoulder so that I could jump out to photograph particularly beautiful locations; humored my recording of color percentages, species and elevations; pointed out spectacular color; and tolerated my exuberance in showing her countless stunning photographs taken by our contributors.

Of course, our deepest thanks go to the many tens of thousands of people who have read, followed, reacted and commented here and on our social media pages. You are, after all, the reason we do this.

Above is our video impression of autumn in California, this year. We produce a new video each autumn. To see them all, CLICK HERE.

The photographs selected for this year’s video represent: what happened this autumn, the extent and diversity of fall color across the state, and some of the finest photographs taken in 2018.

If you would like your photographs considered for inclusion in next autumn’s video, submit “horizontal” pictures of fall color taken in places not often photographed. As, competition is stiffest among pictures taken at the most photographed destinations.

Autumn doesn’t end today. It continues for nearly a month longer. We’ll continue to post photos and reports, as received. Though today, we begin to dial back reports and will post them less frequently. We’ve also stopped sending  weekly reports to meteorologists, travel and outdoor writers.

So, enjoy your Thanksgiving Day and plan an Orange Friday of fall color spotting, tomorrow.

See you next autumn, dude. 

California (Peak 75-100%) GO NOW! – In our hearts, California is always peaking.

, ,

Looking Back at Autumns Past

Tomorrow, we post our annual Thanksgiving Day message and video review of 2018.

It will be our seventh annual “California Fall Color Looks Back” video. As, although CaliforniaFallColor.com went live in 2009, it wasn’t until 2012 that we began posting video reviews.

In advance of seeing “California Fall Color Looks Back at 2018,” we thought you might like to see those from years past.

Ron Tyler created each video. Ron is head of the Tyler Marketing Group, an El Dorado Hills-based marketing communications consultancy with expertise in social media, product marketing and video.

Each of the photographs selected for these videos is representative of what happened that autumn, the extent and diversity of fall color seen across the state, and some of the finest photographs taken that year. 

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

, , ,

How Have Wildfires Affected Fall Color?

Dead pine at sunset, Sequoia National Park (11-12/16) Anson Davalos

Thanks to this summer’s wildfires, it’s been hazy for a month here in the Sierra Foothills.

Haze is not unusual to the foothills. Each autumn, Central Valley rice fields and other agricultural croplands are burned to dispose of leftover straw (stubble) and control disease and pest problems. For centuries before, native people burned grasses at summer’s end, to make it easier to collect oak acorns (a principal food source).

So, hazy skies have been part of California’s late summer for thousands of years. Though this summer’s many wildfires added particulates, gasses and ash in abnormally high quantities to our normally clean skies, causing people to ask, “How have the wildfires affected fall color?”

Plant scientists say smoke both benefits and harms plants.

Benefit – Smoke or haze are the product of combustion, which means higher levels of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) can exist, compared to normal. As CO2 increases, plant growth does as well, as long as there is sufficient sunlight. Nutrients in ash from a fire benefit new growth. And, fire opens a forest, eliminating mature trees and making space for young plants.

Harm – Smoke also drops ash and other particulates that reduce photosynthesis; those can clog “stomatal pores, reducing gas exchange in the leaf,” New Mexico University scientists write. Holocaustic wildfire can devastate a forest’s ecosystem, seriously depleting endangered species.

As we reported two years ago (Death of the Sierra), 100 years of fire suppression has created a catastrophe for the forest, air quality, wildlife and humanity. This year, we ate the bitter fruit of those decisions as we watched forests in Mendocino County, Shasta County, Mariposa County and countless other locations go up in smoke.

The most evident effect of a wildfire on fall color is that it will take years for stands of most species of deciduous trees to grow back. Deciduous plants that grow near water (aspen, cottonwood, willows) are the most resilient and first to recover.

Aspen Grove, San Bernardino National Forest (10/12/13) Lisa Wilkerson-Willis

It’s been three years since an oft-photographed aspen grove near Big Bear was burned in a major wildfire. At the time, we reported that the aspen would be the first trees to recover (Burnt Aspen to Recover).

Today, we spoke with Teddi Boston at the Barton Flats Visitor Center who said that within three months of that fire, the aspen were three feet tall and they’ve recovered fast since.

However, access to this grove is limited by logging which is occurring on the one-lane road that leads to the grove. So, until the logging ends access to the aspen is blocked.

One way to see aspen in the San Bernardino National Forest is to visit its Barton Flats Visitor Center where many aspen grow near the center. We also plan to send a reporter out to the Aspen Grove at peak to photograph Big Bear’s grove since the fire.

In contrast, deciduous forests in areas overrun by this past summer’s wildfires weren’t fire-resistant aspen, and were incinerated. Most of the deciduous trees lost to this year’s fires were maple, oaks and alder, which will take years to recover.

Fortunately, as expansive as this summer’s fires were, the number of trees destroyed still represent a fraction of the entire forest. Areas that were not burned will continue to display fall color, as they have in past years. For example, Yosemite’s fires occurred mostly outside the National Park. None of the black oak, bigleaf maple, or dogwood in Yosemite Valley were damaged.

Western dogwood, Plumas County (8/27/18) Jeff Luke Titcomb

Big Leaf Maple, Plumas County (8/27/18) Jeff Luke Titcomb

Nevertheless, color spotters have been reporting signs that haze and overcast may have reduced photosynthesis, triggering earlier displays of autumn color.

Jeff Luke Titcomb reports from Plumas County that Western Dogwood are showing early rose and Big Leaf Maple are beginning to turn yellow.

Chinese pistache, El Dorado Hills (8/28/18) John Poimiroo

Elsewhere in Sierra Foothill suburbs, exotic Chinese Pistache are showing early change of color, becoming splashed with yellow and orange.

Offering an optimistic view is Butte County color spotter Cindy Hoover who reports, “The one thing I have really been watching are the aspen. I think this year may be a phenomenal year since there’s been so much rain. The aspen leaves are darker green this year. I can only imagine the bounty of yellow, deep gold and red they’re going to share.”

Reports like Cindy’s indicate that a normal autumn is more likely than an accellerated one.

So, do not confuse today’s reintroduction of the Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks, the feel of autumn in the air or a scattered number of trees and shrubs turning color early as proof that autumn has arrived.

Autumn has not arrived significantly earlier than in past years. Fall will happen just about as it has in previous years, regardless of the year’s many wildfires. 

Pumpkin Spice Latte (8/28/18) Starbucks