While driving along US 101, the Redwood Highway, the green forest beside the road will often light up suddenly in yellow or crimson. Color spotter Sandy Steinman reports he took the route this past weekend, from Arcata to the Bay Area and experienced just that. He writes, “The trees in northern California have turned quite a bit in the last several days. The Maples and other deciduous trees around the Avenue of the Giants to Willits are mostly showing their fall yellows. I would guess they are now about 80 percent turned. There is also still lots of red from poison oak growing on the redwoods. There are also planted trees in towns and private property showing other fall colors as well. Just remember this area is mostly conifers and patches of fall color are usually not large or widespread.”
As Sandy drove south of Willits, he found “the best fall color was the vineyards. Some are in full color showing a lot of yellow and red while others are still mostly green.” That’s the thing about the vineyards. One will be deep red, another unturned and the next a mix of yellow, orange, red and lime.
GO NOW! – 75 – 100% – U.S. 101, The Redwood Highway – Spots of yellow bigleaf maple and crimson poison oak decorate the otherwise evergreen redwood forest from Willits north to Arcata.
GO NOW! – 50 – 75% – Mendocino and Sonoma County Vineyards – A mix of fully peaked vines of various bright colors (deep red, orange, yellow, lime) can be near one that hasn’t even considered turning color. That’s October in the vineyards. Still, we issue a Go Now alert for wine country as spots will be good throughout the remainder of October and early November.
