Sunsets Over The Central Valley
Autumn sunsets are the best of the year, particularly as seen across the Central Valley.
Sunsets are particularly spectacular in autumn because blue light is scattered easiest by nitrogen and oxygen air molecules, whereas “longer wavelengths — reds and oranges – are not scattered as much by air molecules,” The Weather Channel reports.
During sunrise and sunset, sunlight must pass through more of the atmosphere before we see it. TWC explains, “so it comes into contact with even more molecules in the air.” And, “As days grow shorter, the skies at sunset glow with the most spectacular hues, blooming with pinks, reds and oranges.”
Autumn weather patterns also bring drier, cleaner air from the north, allowing more colors of the spectrum to “make it through to our eyes without getting scattered by particles in the air, producing brilliant sunsets and sunrises that can look red, orange, yellow or even pink,” concludes TWC.
In the Central Valley, agricultural haze from farmers burning off their fields adds carbon molecules to the air, making the sunsets downright awe inspiring.
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Sequoia National Park – A Palette of Color
Autumn color is spackling the forest along Crystal Cave Road in Sequoia National Park, like paint on a palette.
Southern California color spotter Frank McDonough visited the park, yesterday, returning with these images of the roadside spectacle.
Sequoia National Park (5,000′) – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
[wunderground location=”Three Rivers, CA” numdays=”4″ showdata=”daynames,icon,date,conditions,highlow” layout=”simple”]
California’s Longest Peak
California’s longest lasting peak occurs in its vineyards.
Fall color begins peaking by grape variety in October and continues through November.
Gene Miller visited the Napa Valley yesterday and captured these images along CA-29 and the Silverado Trail.
He reported, “the whole area is alive with color,” admitting, “I passed up a lot of shots as my wine tasting took priority.”
Napa Valley – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
[wunderground location=”Napa, CA” numdays=”4″ showdata=”daynames,icon,date,conditions,highlow” layout=”simple”]
First Report: Uvas Canyon
Uvas Canyon, near Morgan Hill in the southern Santa Cruz Mountains, is a cool, refreshing forested getaway for residents of Silicon Valley (Santa Clara Valley).
It is a Santa Clara County Park with 7.2 miles of hiking trails including a one-mile waterfall loop that travels along Swanson Creek past several waterfalls and cascades.
At peak, bigleaf maple provide bright yellow contrast to emerald mosses that grow upon boulders in the creek.
Color spotter Tracy Zhou visited on Saturday, to find the maples nearly past peak, though still colorful.
The forest trail is carpeted with buff-colored spent leaves.
Uvas Canyon County Park, Morgan Hill – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
[wunderground location=”Morgan Hill, CA” numdays=”4″ showdata=”daynames,icon,date,conditions,highlow” layout=”simple”]
Yosemite: At Peak for a Week
Bold color remains to be enjoyed in Yosemite National Park though most of the maple and dogwood have another week of peak before they’re gone, reports color spotter Son H Nguyen.
Son traveled the Wawona Road (CA-41 – south entrance) from Yosemite Valley to Glacier Point on Saturday and found the color from Tunnel View to Glacier Point to be “amazing. Golden oak dominated the mountain, dogwood and maples just turned.”
One of the most photographed fall color locations in the national park is Fern Spring.
It is passed soon after entering the floor of Yosemite Valley (by CA-120 [north entrance] or CA-140 [west entrance]) and turning onto South Side Drive.
Fern Spring is tucked away in a small turnout surrounded by bigleaf maple, black oak and dogwood.
Son found the color at Fern Spring to be past peak, though the fallen leaves floating in its dark pool and occasional pink and yellow highlights from surrounding dogwood and bigleaf maple still make it worth visiting for a few more days.
Color along the Merced River is near past peak, though glimpses of beautiful color are still hanging in there.
The best color to be found in Yosemite Valley are the black oaks near the base of Yosemite Falls that have turned bright orange. A few have gone “straight to brown, already.”
Vince Piercey was there this past Thursday and captured some of the turning leaves beside Lower Yosemite Fall.
Yosemite National Park – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW! – Best color to be seen is among the black oak at the base of Yosemite Falls.
[wunderground location=”Yosemite, CA” numdays=”4″ showdata=”daynames,icon,date,conditions,highlow” layout=”simple”]
Returning to Downieville
Last weekend’s storm kept a lot of photographers and color spotters from visiting locations where autumn color was peaking.
That happened to Philip Reedy, who returned to Downieville, in the northern Gold Country, yesterday to find the color just past peak along the North Yuba River and spent bigleaf maple leaves washed onto its banks.
He noted that a few bigleaf maples persist in speckling the forest with yellow, though it’s evident from his pictures that while the fly fishing is surely fun, fall color spotting is at the end of its run.
For the best fall color now in the northern Mother Lode, Philip recommends lower elevations along CA-49 on the drive to Downieville, the North Yuba River west of Downieville, at lower elevations along CA-49 and beside Lavezzola Creek, north of Downieville.
Downieville – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW! – Spots of bright color can still be seen near Downieville at the northern terminus of the Gold Country, though it is fading.
[wunderground location=”Downieville, CA” numdays=”4″ showdata=”daynames,icon,date,conditions,highlow” layout=”simple”]
Bishop: Eastern Sierra Prize
William Croce calls Bishop, the Round Valley and US Hwy 6, a “Nice consolation prize for those of us who missed the good stuff in the high country.”
Indeed it is. Too many color spotters give up on Bishop once the aspen have peaked up Bishop Creek Canyon, but they’re missing out on the beauty that William found… tall Frémont cottonwood carrying loads of yellow, gold and lime color in Bishop and along US 6, past Laws.
Bishop color spotter Gigi deJong reported today that there’s “a mix of color, ranging from light yellow, to burnt orange, to a few small patches of crimson & red,” in and around Bishop with “a lovely line of trees glowing gold bordering Bishop Middle School at W. Line & Home Streets.”
That hardly resembles a consolation prize, and neither do William Croce’s photographs.
Bishop – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
A Satisfying Drive Through Sacramento
The most satisfying leaves of autumn are Leaf Cookies sold at the Freeport Bakery in Sacramento.
Buying a half-dozen of them has become a sure stop on a routine fall color drive that I take each November along the American River to Sacramento and back.
The drive begins in Folsom where Mormon Island Wetlands and the boulevards of Folsom are near peak. Frémont cottonwood at the wetlands preserve (part of Folsom Lake State Recreation Area) began showing yellow in September, though they still have lots of green, lime and fresh yellow in them.
Continuing west on US 50, I exit at Sunrise Blvd. for a visit to downtown Fair Oaks where, near Plaza Park, roosters hold court, crowing, scratching and otherwise guarding their turf.
The roosters are part of the charm of Fair Oaks, a rural town that is now surrounded by suburbia and has become an oasis of authentic shops, cafes and restaurants.
Returning to US 50 and traveling on to Sacramento, I exit and tour “the 40s,” Sacramento’s tony residential area, so named because it is comprised of avenues numbered in the 40s.
Along the avenues, leaves that have fallen from the capital city’s towering London planetrees are blown into piles to be scooped up by city street cleaners and taken away.
London planetrees are a variety of sycamore. Their leaves are a mix of chartreuse and orange-brown. Presently, they’re near peak.
Sacramento prides itself as a city of trees and nowhere is that more evident than at William Land Park, south of downtown or on the drive into Sacramento International Airport, where trees are planted by species in a grand arboretum that leads to the airport’s terminals.
No wonder, Leaf Cookies are so popular in Sacramento.
American River and Sacramento – Near Peak (75-100%) GO NOW! –
Urban Forest Exotics
As color descends throughout California, the bold stands of aspen have disappeared. The last remaining big show are the black oak, which continue to show orange color at elevations below 3,000′.
Color spotters turn to California’s urban forests for bright color, as I did this past week in my garden in El Dorado Hills (800′).
There, Eastern redbud, Pacific dogwood, breeze-brushed Oregon splitleaf birch and Chinese pistache were backlit and beautiful.
Today, I head out on a search for more exotics showing color in Sacramento’s urban forest.
California’s Urban Forests – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
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Highway to Heaven
Driving CA-3 north from Weaverville past Trinity Lake and the Trinity Alps at this time of year, you truly are on a highway to heaven.
Bold color fills the forest. In places, it is a virtual corridor of autumn drama.
Color spotter Jeri Rangel traveled the route this week, returning with these images of dogwood blushing in the woods and bigleaf maple, vine maple, cottonwood, alder, aspen, chokecherry and oaks lighting streams, forests and roads with autumn color.
California State Highway 3 – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!