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.
You Gotta Love It.
Spectrum News 1 joined up with color spotters Nick and Alena Barnhart to report about fall color in the Oak Glen area of Southern California.
Nick’s comment? “Fall color in California? You gotta like it.”
Bay Area Gets Vibrant
Chinese pistach and palm, Los Altos (11/23/19) Vishal Mishra 
Spent elm leaves, Palo Alto (11/23/19) Vishal Mishra
Autumn in the San Francisco Bay Area is often best during Thanksgiving Week. Color spotter Vishal Mishra found Los Altos and Palo Alto true to form and glowing yesterday.
Chinese pistache, Los Altos (11/23/19) Vishal Mishra 
Flowering pear, Los Altos (11/23/19) Vishal Mishra 
Los Altos (11/23/19) Vishal Mishra 
Liquidambar, Palo Alto (11/23/19) Vishal Mishra 
Elm, Palo Alto (11/23/19) Vishal Mishra 
Elm, Palo Alto (11/23/19) Vishal Mishra 
Elm, Palo Alto (11/23/19) Vishal Mishra 
Elm, Palo Alto (11/23/19) Vishal Mishra
Landmark elm, flowering pear and Chinese pistache are still heavy with leaves, though dropping them in a steady fall.
- San Francisco Bay Area – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
Paramount Ranch, Not “The End”
Last year, the Woolsey Fire roared through the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, incinerating the historic Paramount Ranch film location. At the time, many thought the park’s closing credits would declare “The End” for Paramount Ranch.
However, on a visit this week, Kathy Jonokuchi found that the National Park Service, with help from motion picture studios and the public, plans to rebuilt its Western Town, to be used again in television, commercial and feature films.
Paramount Ranch had served as a film location, since 1927. All that remains of Paramount’s sets are the Western Town’s train station and church (seen in the HBO series, Westworld). Click to enlarge photos.
Church, Western Town, Paramount Ranch, Santa Monica Mountains NRA (11/18/19) Kathy Jonokuchi 
Western Town, Paramount Ranch, Santa Monica Mountains NRA (11/18/19) Kathy Jonokuchi 
Western Town, Paramount Ranch, Santa Monica Mountains NRA (11/18/19) Kathy Jonokuchi
Gone are sets once used to film the TV series Cisco Kid (1950s), Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman (1990s) and countless feature films, TV commercials, videos and photo shoots.
The magnificent Valley oak that grew in the middle of the set had been rumored to have budded this past spring, though it is a charcoal remnant of the great tree it once was (seen above).
Kathy found that many of the trees had succumbed to the combination of drought and the fire. Though there’s still life in the now stark landscape surrounding Paramount Ranch.
Acorn woodpecker, Santa Monica Mountains NRA (11/18/19) Kathy Jonokuchi 
California scrub jay, Santa Monica Mountains NRA (11/18/19) Kathy Jonokuchi 
Nanday conures, Santa Monica Mountains NRA (11/18/19) Kathy Jonokuchi
The park still had “plenty of songbirds and raptors … Nanday conures and an acorn woodpecker” seen storing acorns for his winter cache.
Paramount Ranch can’t claim a happy ending, though it’s not entirely a downer, either. Nature is recovering, and with a helping hand, the national recreation area’s legacy as a film location will recover, as well.
- Paramount Ranch, Santa Monica Mountains NRA – Patchy (10-50%) – there is not a lot of fall color. Though, what’s there inspires hope.
Cupertino Gold
DeAnza College, Cupertino (11/15/19) Deepa Yvaraj 
DeAnza College, Cupertino (11/15/19) Deepa Yvaraj 
DeAnza College, Cupertino (11/15/19) Deepa Yvaraj
Cupertino has been producing high tech gold for decades. Now Gingko biloba are littering the home of Apple Corporation with fallen gold.
Deepa Yuvaraj writes she’s been sharing pictures of Silicon Valley fall color with friends for years, though just discovered CaliforniaFallColor.com, perhaps because of The Merc’s review (previous post).
Perhaps someone who works at Apple would take pictures with an iPhone of fall color inside the Apple Park campus ring. It would sure be fun to post them.
- Cupertino (72′) – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
San Jose Mercury Urges “GO NOW!”
Reviewing the state of fall color in the San Francisco Bay Area, the San Jose Mercury urges readers to “GO NOW!”
CLICK HERE to read the Merc’s report, and Go Now!
Mass Ascension
Birders and photographers stood on a platform at the Colusa National Wildlife Refuge in the chill morning air yesterday.
Most were regulars. They visit the refuge almost daily with their spotting scopes, binoculars and long lenses.
“An eagle must have spooked them,” one of the photographers said, as swirling white and grey specks rose above a line of orange-black oaks in the distance.
Lenses turned as one as one of several mass ascensions seen that morning approached. At first, I shot with my Nikkor 200 to 500 mm lens on a D850, then shifted from the big gun to a separate body with a Nikkor 24 to 70 mm on a D700.
By the time the snow and Ross geese arrived, I’d dialed down the lens to 24 mm. Phil Reedy stood nearby, doing the same.
Geese circled above us in great, flapping, squawking wonder. I got off a couple of dozen frames on motor, then thought, “Enjoy the moment” and put down the camera to just be enthralled by the beauty of being immersed in the experience.
- Colusa NWR – Peak Migration – Snow geese, Ross geese, various ducks and other migratory fowl.
Snow and Ross geese, Colusa NWR (11/22/19) John Poimiroo 
Eurasian Widgeon, Colusa NWR (11/22/19) John Poimiroo 
Pintail ducks, Colusa NWR (11/22/19) John Poimiroo 
Snow and Ross geese, Colusa NWR (11/22/19) John Poimiroo 
Snow geese, Colusa NWR (11/22/19) John Poimiroo
Visions of Sweet Gums
Chinese pistache, Pistacia chinensis, Santa Clara (11/20/19) Anson Davalos 
Flowering pear, Pyrus calleryana, Campbell (11/20/19) Anson Davalos 
Chinese pistache, Pistacia chinensis, Santa Clara (11/20/19) Anson Davalos 
Sweetgum, Liquidambar, Los Gatos (11/20/19) Anson Davalos
At a time when visions of sugar plums dance in childrens’ heads, Anson Davalos sends visions of Sweetgums, Flowering pear and Chinese pistache from Silicon Valley.
- Los Gatos – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
- Santa Clara – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
A Cornucopia of Color
Oak Glen is displaying a cornucopia of color.
Though the San Bernardino Mountains apple-growing area is at an elevation of 4,734′, fall color still looks good and should stay at peak until Thanksgiving Day, SoCal color spotter Alena Nicholas estimates.
She was there on Monday taking pictures and being interviewed by Spectrum News for Californiafallcolor.com.
Alena reports that Oak Glen’s ponds, woods and orchards are still full of bright color. Deer have settled into the orchards as they wait for the inevitable apple to fall from an upper branch.
Oak Glen was California’s first apple harvest destination. Its farms and shops are famous for their homebaked apple pastries, nature trails, handmade gifts, harvest atmosphere, honest family fun and fresh-pressed cider.
And yes, there’s still time to order a ready-to-bake apple pie before Thanksgiving Day.
Mule deer rest in an apple orchard, Oak Glen (11/18/19) Alena Nicholas 
Liquidambar, Oak Glen (11/18/19) Alena Nicholas 
Chinese pistache, Oak Glen (11/18/19) Alena Nicholas 
Chinese pistache, Oak Glen (11/18/19) Alena Nicholas 
Red oak, Oak Glen (11/18/19) Alena Nicholas 
Oak Glen (11/18/19) Alena Nicholas 
Oak Glen (11/18/19) Alena Nicholas 
Oak Glen (11/18/19) Alena Nicholas
- Oak Glen (4,734′) – Peak to Past Peak, GO NOW, YOU ALMOST MISSED IT.
Angelic San Gabriel
Liturgy describes St. Gabriel (San Gabriel in Spanish) as the archangel of judgment. If so, then color spotter Steve Shinn judges the West Fork of the San Gabriel River as absolutely angelic.
Steve volunteers for the U.S. Forest Service, capturing the beauty of San Gabriel National Forest and people enjoying it. As such, he visits the area regularly and writes he would vote the West Fork of the San Gabriel River, which connects CA-39 above Azusa, as one of the most beautiful spots in the San Gabriel Mountains.
W Fork San Gabriel River (11/17/19) Steve Shinn 
San Gabriel NF (11/9/19) Steve Shinn 
W Fork San Gabriel River (11/17/19) Steve Shinn
- W. Fork San Gabriel River – Peak to Past Peak, GO NOW or YOU MISSED IT.