Fall events: Mono County
Each autumn, events bring together opportunities to see fall color and have fun at inexpensive gatherings. They vary from car shows, to brewfests, to nature walks, to history talks, to photo and art classes, to runs, rides and banquets with local legends.
To help add some of this fun to your fall color wanderings, CaliforniaFallColor.com will be publishing lists of California’s best autumn events. We begin in the Eastern Sierra.
For those unfamiliar with Mono County, it’s from where the sun rises over Yosemite National Park.
Mono County is best known as home of Mammoth Lakes and Mammoth Mountain, June Lake and its famous loop, Tioga Pass, Mono Lake, Bodie Ghost Town State Historic Park, cattle rangeland that spreads across the Bridgeport Valley, the Owens River, Walker River and Antelope Valley, but it also has many precious surprises.
Mono County is reached by US 395, Monitor Pass (CA-89), Sonora Pass (CA-108) and Tioga Pass (CA-120E).
Fall color can be seen first near tree line (10,000′) at Rock Creek Lake by mid-Sept. Then, it descends at a rate of about 500′ a week, before it’s gone. During the show, these events add flavor and fun to a Mono County fall (Click bold titles for links):
- Sept/Oct. – Field Seminars by the Mono Lake Committee, including such topics as: fire ecology, geology, fall color, arborglyphs, watercolor painting and photography.
- Sept. 3 – Nov. 15 – Ambush at the Lake, a renowned fishing derby at Convict Lake, with Morrison’s Bonus Derby occurring Oct. 26 – 28.
- Sept. 6 – 8 – Graniteman Challenge, combine three athletic feats into what is considered to be one of the most challenging triathlons on Earth.
- Sept. 6 – Granite to Granite Swim, 2.4-mi on June Lake.
- Sept. 7 – Mammoth Gran Fondo, 102-mi bike ride.
- Sept. 8 – Tioga Pass Run, a 12.4-mi run up Tioga Pass.
- Sept. 6 – 8 – June Lake Jam Fest at Gull Lake, a jammin’ concert benefitting the Mono Arts Council.
- Sept. 20 – 21 – Mammoth Oktoberfest, beer, wine, family-friendly games and mouth-watering food.
- Sept. 21 – Bodie Hills Stewardship Day, by Friends of the Inyo. Give back with other outdoor enthusiasts at a volunteer project then celebrate your good work with new-found friends.
- Sept. 24 – 28 – Eastern Sierra ATV & UTV Jamboree in Coleville and Walker, ride your OHV on guided trail rides through gorgeous backcountry.
- Sept. 28 – Ridge Rambler Half Marathon in Twin Lakes. Run downhill from Twin Lakes (7,100′) to Bridgeport (6,600′), past alpine lakes and over rolling hills. End up at the Bridgeport Autumn Festival & Wrecks and Rods Car Show.
- Sept. 28 – 7th June Lake Autumn Beer Festival at Gull Lake. Brewers will present their craft brews in a music and fun-filled family-friendly beer garden.
- Sept. 28 – National Public Lands Day – Free admission to Yosemite National Park. Voluntourism projects.
- Sept. 28, Oct. 12 and Oct. 26 – Historic Benton Hot Springs Fundraising Dinners. History-focused dinner talks provide fascinating insights to: Scandalous Women of Benton, Restless Spirits of the Old Stone Store, and Warren Davis, Gentleman Horse Thief.
- Oct. 5 – 55th Deer Hunter BBQ. Dine with local legends on a legendary secret BBQ recipe with all the fixin’s and dessert at the Walker Community Center.
- Oct. 6 – Crowley Lake Trail Run. 5k, 10k and kids 1k trail runs along scenic Crowley Lake and past Beaver Cove and Crooked Creek with views of the Sierra Nevada and Glass Mountains.
- Oct. 10 – 13 – Mammoth Photo Festival. Learn from professional landscape photographers in panel sessions, keynote addresses and photo walks.
- Oct 12 – Bodie Fall Photo Day, apply for access to photograph Bodie Ghost Town at this special photographer’s event.
- Oct. 10 – 15 – Annett’s Mono Village Fall Fishing Derby. This is an ideal fishing event for kids and kids at heart.
- Oct. 12 – Ducks Unlimited Dinner in Bridgeport. Support waterfowl protection at an evening of camaraderie and good food.
- Oct. 18 – 20 – Leaves in the Loop at June Lake. A fall color focused festival that features photography and painting classes, contests, a history tour and “Taste of the Town,” restaurant sampling.
- Oct. 25 – 27 – Eastern Sierra History Conference at the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory Page Center (10 mi south of Mammoth Lakes). Historian-led discussions on the people, cultures and traditions of the Eastern Sierra.
Why don’t evergreens lose their leaves?
Actually, they do. It just doesn’t happen all at once, with few exceptions.
Evergreen trees have both broad leafs and needles. Madrone, magnolia and photinia are examples of broadleaved evergreens, while pine, fir, cedar, spruce, and redwood have needled leaves.
Evergreen needles can last anywhere from a year to 20 years, but eventually they are replaced by new leaves. When that happens, the old needles turn color and drop, but not all together and not as dramatically as deciduous trees (e.g., maple, oak, dogwood, alder, birch).
The reason needles are green is that they are full of chlorophyll which photosynthesizes sunlight into food for the tree. It also reflects green light waves, making the needles look green.
Needles, just like deciduous leaves, contain carotenoid and anthocyanin pigments. You just don’t see them until the green chlorophyll stops being produced. Once that happens, hidden carotenoids (yellow, orange and brown) emerge, as is seen in the above photograph.
Additionally, red, blue and purple Anthocyanins – produced in autumn from the combination of bright light and and excess sugars in the leaf cells – also emerge once the chlorophyll subsides.
Yes, even evergreen leaves change color… eventually.
Evergreens that drop leaves at one time include the: Conifers Larch, Bald Cyprus and Dawn Redwood.
In snowy regions, evergreen trees are able to carry snow because the waxy coating on needles, along with their narrow shape, allows them to retain water better by keeping it from freezing inside (which would otherwise destroy the leaf).
Needles also prevent snow from weighing down and breaking branches. Finally, needles allow an evergreen tree to sustain the production (though slowed) of chlorophyll through winter. Whereas, broadleaved deciduous trees would be damaged if they kept producing chlorophyll and didn’t drop their leaves.
Evergreen trees do lose their leaves and the leaves do change color. It just isn’t as spectacular.
Why do deciduous trees lose their leaves?
It’s survival not just of the fittest, but of the wisest.
Deciduous trees drop their leaves in order to survive. As days grow shorter and colder, deciduous trees shut down veins and capillaries (that carry water and nutrients) with a barrier of cells that form at the leaf’s stem.
Called “abscission” cells, the barrier prevents the leaf from being nourished. Eventually, like scissors, the abscission cells close the connection between leaf and branch and the leaf falls.
Had the leaves remained on branches, the leaves would have continued to drink and, once temperatures drop to freezing, the water in the tree’s veins would freeze, killing the tree.
Further, with leaves fallen, bare branches are able to carry what little snow collects on them, protecting them from being broken under the weight of the snow. So, by cutting off their food supply (leaves), deciduous trees survive winter.
The fallen leaves continue to benefit the tree through winter, spring and summer by creating a humus on the forest floor that insulates roots from winter cold and summer heat, collect dew and rainfall, and decompose to enrich the soil and nurture life.
It’s a cycle of survival, planned wisely.
Why do leaves change color?
Leaves on deciduous trees change color in autumn from green to various hues of lime, yellow, gold, orange, red and brown because of a combination of shorter days and colder temperatures.
Throughout spring and summer, green chlorophyll (which allows trees to absorb sunlight and produce nutrients) is made and replaced constantly.
However, as days grow shorter, “cells near the juncture of the leaf and stem divide rapidly but do not expand,” reports Accuweather.com. “This action of the cells form a layer called the abscission layer.
“The abscission layer blocks the transportation of materials from the leaf to the branch and from the roots to the leaves. As Chlorophyll is blocked from the leaves, it disappears completely from them.”
That’s when vivid yellow xanthophylls, orange carotenoids and, due to a different process, red and purple anthocyanins emerge.
Orange is found in leaves with lots of beta-carotene, a compound that absorbs blue and green light and reflects yellow and red light, giving the leaves their orange color.
Yellow comes from Xanthophylls and Flavonols that reflect yellow light. Xanthophylls are compounds and Flavonols are proteins. They’re what give egg yolks their color.
Though always present in the leaves, Carotenoids and Xanthophylls are not visible until Chlorophyll production slows.
Red comes from the Anthocyanin compound. It protects the leaf in autumn, prolonging its life. Anthocyanins are pigments manufactured from the sugars trapped in the leaf, giving term to the vernacular expression, “the leaves are sugaring up.”
The best fall color occurs when days are warm and nights are clear and cold. California’s cloudless skies and extreme range of elevations (sea level to 14,000′) provide ideal conditions for the development of consistently vivid fall color, as seen in these reports.
The Science of Changing Leaves
Smithsonian.com has posted a fascinating time-lapse video of leaves transforming from chlorophyll-filled green to tones of yellow, red and brown, accompanied by an article explaining how leaves change color and some misconceptions about the process.
The video was created by Owen Reiser, a mathematics and biology student at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Reiser, Smithsonian.com reports, took 6,000 photos of leaves to weave together the video.
CaliforniaFallColor.com has reported previously how the change of leaf color results from the loss of chlorophyl, due to shorter days and fewer nutrients. Though, David Lee, Professor Emeritus of biological sciences at Florida International University and author of Nature’s Palette, The Science of Plant Color, says many (including us) have misreported (we won’t make the mistake again) that yellow and red leaves change the same way, when they do not.
Lee states in the Smithsonian.com article that the breakdown of chlorophyll in the leaves does reveal yellow and orange (carotenoids) hidden beneath, but that red (anthocyanin) pigments are produced within the leaves as they die.
There are two schools of thought as to why this happens. One is that the red color is a defensive measure to make the plants look an unhealthy red as the leaf dies, protecting it from plant-eating bugs and animals which are conditioned not to eat red foliage.
The other thought is that red is a form of photo protection. Horticulturist Bill Hoch, Smithsonian.com reports, believes red’s wavelength helps shield the leaf by absorbing excess light allowing the plant to more efficiently remove nitrogen from the proteins that are breaking down and send that nutrient back to tree limbs and roots, saving as much of it as possible before winter.
Whatever the cause, the result is spectacular and less than a month away from being seen in California.
Fall Fashion Trends
Here’s what every fashionista should know about what to wear or not, this autumn, from “A Fashion.”
“Shades of Orange” and “Merlot Wine Red,” are compatible with our view of fall’s colors, but “Guacamole Green?!” C’mon!
“White Coats” and “Light Blue” seem to be more valid as winter statements.
“Denim Dreams,” maybe. “Pale Pink,” definitely not.
CaliforniaFallColor.com Wins Seven EIC Awards
CaliforniaFallColor.com won in seven categories at the Outdoor Writers Association of California’s recent Excellence in Craft Awards, presented at Mount Shasta City in late May.
The website was named California’s Best Outdoor Internet Site for the second successive year and received first place awards for Best Outdoor News Article (Aspen Grove Trail Recovers) and Best Outdoor Feature Photograph (Seasonal Confetti), Best Outdoor Video Short (Giving Thanks).
CaliforniaFallColor.com received a second place award for California’s Best Outdoor Medium (won by the Bishop Visitor Guide) and two third place awards for Best Outdoor Photographic Series (Sacramento’s Last Leaves) and the Phil Ford Humor Award (Orange Friday).
More about the Outdoor Writers Association of California is found at OWAC.org.
Scouting Report: Siskiyou
Whenever I visit Siskiyou County, I question why it took so long to return. The county is so beautiful and loaded with tantalizing outdoor things to do that it’s a wonder it’s so lightly populated and traveled.
Siskiyou is the frosting atop California’s layer cake of spectacular places, and Mount Shasta is its grandest decoration.
What’s kept me from visiting more often has been my perception that it’s too far away. However, on a recent scouting trip up north, time melted away and anticipation built as I drove north on I-5.
Near Red Bluff, big, beautiful, frosted Mt. Shasta rose above the horizon, beckoning and reminding me why Siskiyou is so irresistible.
CaliforniaFallColor.com posts far too few reports from locations north of Shasta Lake, but when we do, they glitter with gold.
Among my favorites for fall color are the Klamath River, McCloud River, Hedge Creek, Mossbrae Falls, Faery Falls and any spot that contrasts fall color with Mt. Shasta.
I asked Siskiyou County’s Megan Peterson where locals go when the color begins sparkling. She likes the Scott Valley where bigleaf maple populate the twisting edges of the Scott River. Good one.
Megan also likes the Gateway Trail system near Yreka. Dogwood and Bigleaf Maple are the dominant deciduous trees and part of the Foundation Trail (part of the Gateway) has tightly bunched dogwood that “put on a great show” in autumn.
Hiker Jane Cohn of Mt. Shasta City lists the Castle Lake Shore Trail, Lake Siskiyou Trail, Box Canyon Trail, Ney Springs Canyon Trail, McCloud River Fall Trail, Sisson Meadow Trail, Dunsmuir Trail, Sacramento River Trail, Pine Tree Hollow Loop, Kelsey Creek Trail and Cabin Creek as all being flanked with pockets of bold color in autumn.
Hikemtshasta.com recommends the Cliff Lake Trail and Spring Hill Trail.
Then, of course, the Mt. Shasta Resort’s golf links are lined with trees that shine bright orange in autumn.
In late May, driving along the McCloud Road, dogwood were abloom with their floral white bracts, hinting at the display of yellow sure to appear once autumn arrives.
Autumn is, however, still a season away, but then don’t put off visiting, as I had. There’s just too much to see, enjoy and explore atop the state in Siskiyou County that is downright irresistible.
Inspired by Nature
In Inspired by Nature, life-long sketchbook artist Marjolein Bastin writes that her sketchbooks reflect what fascinates her in nature … butterflies and bumblebees, fluttering and buzzing around chairs in her garden. Petals and songbirds, berries and blossoms.
For fans of autumn, those images are of fallen leaves, reflections and intensely vibrant fall color, warm and embracing, yet wrapped in a brisk blanket.
Photographs of fall color can be breathtaking, but also limiting to what is seen. Sketching, on the other hand, allows the viewer to eliminate distractions and express detail.
Bastin’s handsome book is meant to be carried, tucked into a rucksack with pencils and watercolors, to be used in the field to capture “experiences, observations and nature finds.”
A blue, cotton bookmark, threaded into the binding, returns you to where you last sketched and a handy envelope inside the back cover provides a place to insert “Nature’s Finds and Treasures.”
There’s lots of empty space in the 64-page sketchbook, meant to be drawn upon, splashed with wet color and pen-scribed. And, example after example of Bastin’s sketches and observations guide how to fill a sketchbook.
Tho, there’s not much detail within Inspired by Nature to explain nature drawing and journaling. For that, get John Muir Laws’ tome, The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling. Laws’ book, though comprehensively instructive, is not one you take into the field. Bastin’s is.
When photographing fall color, I often find myself chasing light, then waiting for it to get golden. During that waiting time, sketching is a way to record observations visually that’s not dependent upon the perfect moment. As, with sketching, the point is to interpret perfection through creative expression.
Inspired by Nature Sketchbook (paperback, 6 x 6″) is available from Andrews McMeel Publishing ($16.99) wherever books are sold.
Coastal Color
Wildflowers are blooming along the Pacific Coast Highway (CA-1) between Cambria, north to Big Sur.
Color spotter Mark Harding drove Hwy 1 over the weekend, returning with these images of wildflowers and wildlife.