Postcard: Mono County at its Best – GO NOW!
Alena Nicholas traveled to Fern Creek Lodge on the June Lake Loop, this past weekend. Alena mentioned, when submitting these photos, that Jon – the 1927 resort’s owner – recently underwent surgery.
She hoped that mentioning his rustic and modern cabins – one of which is named after Ansel Adams – might lift Jon’s spirits.
Well, seeing Alena’s photographs certainly lifted ours, so much so that we’ve packaged the best and most representative of her shots in this postcard collection, providing several inspirational reasons to stay at Fern Creek Lodge.
They include images taken at Convict Lake, Gull Lake, June Lake Loop, Lundy Canyon and Lundy Lake.
We expected Alena to find peak color in Mono County, but didn’t expect how good it would be.
What is seen is that higher areas (Lundy Canyon) have been losing leaves, though a lot of color remains.
How long that will continue depends on whether wind strips the trees.
Along the June Lake Loop, many aspen are still patchy, with lots of green and lime yet to turn yellow and orange.
Spent leaves cover the forest floor, providing a colorful carpet near streams.
We have only two words for those who’d like to see such color… GO NOW!
Peak (75-100%) GO NOW! – June Lake, Convict Lake, Lundy Lake, Lundy Canyon
Peak of the Week: Coffee Creek
Jeri Rangel took to the air this past weekend to show us the glorious color percolating along Coffee Creek in the Shasta Cascade.
This is the best view of peak that we have seen of the Coffee Creek area, earning the area honors as, “Peak of the Week.”
Jeri continued her flight over Alpen Cellars, one of the few vineyards in the Shasta Cascade, its vineyards glowing golden below with the Trinity Alps seen in the distance.
Most of the trees creating the color are bigleaf maple, though some cottonwood, alder and birch are contributing to the show.
The Carville Loop Rd. was part of a fabled stage coach route through Trinity County during the California Gold Rush.
Serving travelers along the Loop, since 1854, has been the Carville Inn, now a resort.
Though gold is no longer being mined in the Trinity River and Coffee Creek, spots of gold can still be seen in the area’s trees.
However, very little gold is being seen along the Upper Sacramento River at Sims Flat, where many of the trees have dropped their leaves or had them turn without significant color.
Color spotter Jill Dinsmore sends a shot of Sims Flat. Though the color is disappointing, there is hope that Indian Rhubarb growing at the river’s edge will brighten to orange-red in coming weeks.
Sherry Gardner found a stand of brightly colored birch along Old Stage Rd in the town of Mt. Shasta.
Peak GO NOW! (75-100%) – Coffee Creek
Peak GO NOW! (75-100%) – Carville Loop
Patchy (10-50%) – Sims Flat, Upper Sacramento River
Peak GO NOW! (75-100%) – Mt. Shasta
Owens Valley Soft and Lovely
Bishop color spotter Gary Young drove down to the Owens River before work, yesterday morning and returned with these beautiful shots of soft, lovely fall color.
The pond shots are from Rawson Ponds near the Owens River (Between East Line Rd and Warm Springs Rd, southeast of Bishop) and the road with the Eastern Sierra seen in the background is Warm Springs Rd.
Gary writes that “you can sure see the effects of the drought in the Owens Valley with only a small percentage of trees showing great color. It certainly has become the Cadillac Desert, described in literature.
Near Peak (50-75%) GO NOW! – Owens Valley
Frost on the Pumpkin
Will there be frost on the pumpkin by Halloween?
According to reports received from color spotters, it’s already been happening in the Eastern Sierra, where nighttime temperatures are now in the 20s and dropping each night.
For Halloween, post your best pumpkin shot… pumpkin patches, carved pumpkins, plastic pumpkins, with CFC creds to anyone who shows frost on the pumpkin.
Here’s our take…
Gold Country Just Starting
A Sunday drive confirmed today that the Gold Country is just starting.
Apple Hill, Pleasant Valley, Newtown Road (Placerville) and Mormon Island Wetland (Folsom) are showing hints of gold, but not enough to push any of these areas to Patchy.
Pleasant Valley and Apple Hill showed the most color with wild cucumber in patchy change from green to chartreuse and vineyards beginning to turn.
A cresting of yellow atop cottonwood at Mormon Island Wetlands in Folsom expands each week, though is still just starting.
Just Starting (0-10%) – Gold Country
June Is Busting Out All Over
We’re beginning to receive reports and photos from color spotters who visited June Lake in the Eastern Sierra and who say it’s as good as it gets.
David Olden sent this image of willows reflected just south of Silver Lake. The area is still just turning, though conditions vary greatly throughout the Loop, “from green to bare,” he writes.
Alena Nicholas called to say June Lake was busting out all over. An extended report with Alena’s images will be posted on Tuesday. Here’s a sampling:
Upper Lassen and Shasta Counties Move Past Peak
Color Spotter Dotty Molt took a road trip last week up to the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon. Along the route she took, Dotty spent a few hours in Shasta County, then continued north and back.
She reports that Susanville, Lassen Peak and Mt. Shasta are now past peak with much of the route visibly diminished by drought.
She writes, “The effects of drought are everywhere, even up in Oregon. The leaves are kind of crunchy orange, brown and muted yellow, with black spots.
“McCloud Falls, near Mt. Shasta is still beautiful, but smaller than I expected, and the foliage around it is past peak, especially in the streams,” she continues, scoring a First Report for her photo of Middle McCloud Falls.
Smoke has filled the air and cast a blue haze across many areas, making photos appear foggy. Dotty notes that the color can be adjusted in post processing, though the smoke “makes everything look dull.”
Past Peak YOU MISSED IT! – Susanville
Past Peak YOU MISSED IT! – Lassen Peak
Past Peak YOU MISSED IT! – Mt. Shasta – Some good color remains to be captured near middle McCloud Falls, but not for long.
Bishop Creek Continues To Deliver
Color spotter Gary Young of Bishop headed up the Bishop Creek Canyon yesterday and sent back these images of Intake II and Hwy 168 between Intake II and Aspendell.
Though the canyon is largely past peak, pockets of color provide beautiful imagery, as Gary found.
Intake II is one of those locations that most people visiting Bishop Creek often ignore, because it is late to turn, but it is the overlooked places that deliver some of the best images.
Postcard: Celestial Cascade
The Shasta Cascade oughta be called the Celestial Cascade, considering what amazing dark sky viewing and photography is available there. It’s even better when a glimpse of fall color makes it into a photograph.
Here’s an image that Cory Poole took this past Sunday night of the Earth rotating under the stars at the confluence of Castle Creek and the Upper Sacramento River with the Castle Crags in full view. Heavenly!
Inyo County: Color Descends to the Owens Valley
With the seasonal closing of Parchers Resort, we lose a reliable color spotter in Jared Smith. This was not a stellar year for Bishop Creek Canyon, as drought and weather stripped 2/3 of the aspen early in September.
By October, much of the color was gone. What remained, had glorious and intense color (including some spectacular reds at North Lake), but the show was not as big as in past years.
So, we’re now officially declaring Bishop Creek to be past peak, though some lower areas are still showing color.
We recommend exploring the Owens Valley for interesting color. In and around Bishop are many stands of cottonwood and some oaks, as well as urban landscaped trees that show bright color.
And, Bishop is a great place to stop, refresh or regroup. Our favorite stops in Bishop include Mountain Light, Galen and Barbara Rowell’s studio; Schat’s Bakkery (home of the original sheepherder’s bread and all kinds of baked goodies) and Mahogany Smoked Meats on N. Sierra Hwy (US 395), though from now through early November, the fall color pleasantly surprises.
Past Peak YOU MISSED IT! – Mist Falls and the groves above Bishop Creek Lodge (8350ft)
Past Peak YOU MISSED IT! – Aspendell (8400ft
Peak GO NOW! (50-75%%) – Four Jeffreys (8000ft) – Four Jeffreys is showing the last of its color.
Peak GO NOW! (75-100%) – Intake II (8000ft) – Very few groves near the dam and along the shoreline have peak color.
Near Peak GO NOW! (50-75%) – Big Trees Campground (7800ft) –Nice color remains in this past to peak area of the canyon.
Near Peak (50-75%) – Bishop (4,150ft) – The upper Owens Valley has developed beautifully and has such a mix of patchy to peaking trees, that we’re calling it Near Peak and issuing an alert to go now. Beautiful gold can be found along Pacific St. in Bishop, while some areas in the Owens Valley are still early. Ornamental pear and other deciduous exotic landscaped trees in Bishop and other Owens Valley towns are coloring up, depending on their specie.
Patchy (10-50%) – Lower Owens Valley – Independence and Lone Pine are developing spots of color along streams and in lower Eastern Sierra canyons.