City Hotel, Main Street, Columbia (11/17/21) John Poimiroo

This week, the Outdoor Writers Association of California fall conference brought me to Tuolumne County in California’s Gold Country.  The conference included craft improvement sessions and business meetings, though I also had time to tour an area I hadn’t explored in years. I found Tuolumne County to be charming, personal and untouched.

While California’s population grows steadily, Tuolumne County’s has hovered – for years – at 54,000 folk. Areas of the County appear as they did in the 1850s when Sonora was called Queen of the Southern Mines and Columbia – to its immediate north – was known as the Gem of the Southern Mines.

Today, Sonora has modern accommodations like the newly renovated Lumberjack Hotel, authentic shops that feature locally made goods, like the Local Collective and Columbia, a state historic park that is California’s equivalent to Williamsburg or Jamestown, Virginia, a wholly preserved gold rush town true to how it looked in the 1850s.

Gold Rush themed activities are common there and across the county. Sip a sarsaparilla or watch a blacksmith work in Columbia; pan for gold or ride a steam train in Jamestown. In winter, Tuolumne County has California’s best sledding hill, the privately operated Leland High Sierra Snowplay Area near Strawberry and one of California’s best family mountain resorts, Dodge Ridge.

Though, the true find for a color spotter was to discover Lost Cannon Creek where by mid October a lush stand of quaking aspen provides what is likely the best display in Tuolumne County, and a grove just waiting for a “First Report.”

At 7,800′, the grove lies beside the creek a half mile after the trailhead near the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center, east of Sonora Pass. It’s a short, though moderately difficult hike and one to plan to do next October.

I left Tuolumne County at dawn this morning, stopping first at Columbia before returning along Hwy 49 to El Dorado County. A light fog embraced Columbia’s historic Main Street and lanterns lit its leaf-strewn path.

City Hotel, Columbia (11/17/21) John Poimiroo

Peak has past in the Gold Country, though a red maple complemented St. James Episcopal Church, beside it. Orange persimmons and liquidambar dressed a Victorian home and orange black oak and cornhusk-yellow locust and red bud decorate the hills.

St. James Episcopal Church, Sonora (11/15/21) John Poimiroo

Persimmons and Liquidambar, Sonora (11/15/21) John Poimiroo

• Tuolumne County (2,139′) – Peak to Past Peak, GO NOW, You Almost Missed It.

Engine 28, Sierra Railroad, Jamestown (11/13/21) Steve Arita

Signs of the transition from autumn to winter are appearing increasingly. Near Jamestown, Steve Arita found the Sierra Railroad to be readying Engine #28 to portray the Polar Express during holiday excursions, as shops throughout the Gold Country shift from autumn displays to holiday ones.

Black cottonwood, Sierra Railroad, Jamestown (11/13/21) Steve Arita

Engine 28, Sierra Railroad, Jamestown (11/13/21) Steve Arita

Sierra Railroad, Jamestown (11/13/21) Steve Arita

As this transition has been occurring, heavy fog has blanketed the Central Valley. This is common in December, though its early mid-November arrival has dampened fall color viewing and instantly discouraged travel to Central Valley wildlife refuges and orchards.

When the fog settles in, color spotters escape the fog by heading up into the Sierra foothills where it’s more certain to be sunny and vibrant. Steve found that to be so, but also that autumn is now nearly Past Peak in the foothills. In Sutter Creek, the blood red branches of a tall liquidambar frame the Methodist church, though few other signs of peak color are seen.

That’s common within the golden chain of Gold Rush towns along Highway 49. About the only gold left to be found is on their Black cottonwood trees.

Liquidambar, Sutter Creek United Methodist Church (11/13/21) Steve Arita

• Golden Chain Highway, CA-49 (1,188′) – Peak to Past Peak, GO NOW, You Almost Missed It.