Before and After: Color During The Storm

Conway Summit (10/15/16) Jeff Simpson

As I begin to type this post, the wind is whistling past my office in El Dorado Hills. Dramatic clouds float overhead and I look out across the rolling contours of the Sierra Nevada foothills, brightened with spots of color.

Reports so far have been that the color is holding firm on most trees, despite gusting winds. So, we’re hopeful that, come Monday, there’ll still be lots of peak color to enjoy in the Eastern and Northern Sierra and Shasta Cascade.

Regardless, CaliforniaFallColor.com expresses thanks to those color spotters who contributed photos taken before and after this past week’s storm.

Wednesday…

Devil’s Postpile NM (10/12/16) Darrell Sano

Devil’s Postpile Rd (10/12/16) Darrell Sano

Long Valley Rd (10/12/16) Darrell Sano

Lower Rainbow Falls (10/12/16) Darrell Sano

McGee Creek (10/12/16) Darrell Sano

Reds Meadow (10/12/16) Darrell Sano

Sotcher Lake (10/12/16) Darrell Sano

Tioga Pass (10/12/16) Darrell Sano

Darrell Sano reported that he’d spent a wonderful day beginning with sunrise at Minaret Vista, then he drove to Devil’s Postpile National Monument. On the one-lane road, “there were vistas of color, full trees at peak.

He found Devil’s Postpile to be other worldly “in the chill of fall morning (31 F). The hexagonal columnar basalt was verdant with lichen.

Sotcher Lake was serene. Symmetric reflections on the water were so transfixing, that he “could have stayed for hours.”

A Reds Meadow, he found beautiful horses in a nearby field, then hiked to lower Rainbow Falls for more exhilaration where water splashed upon the rocks, nurturing color on the banks.

Thursday…

Hope Valley (10/13/16) Sharon Peterson

Sharon and Bill Peterson followed our advice to find lovely color filling the Hope Valley.

Lake Tahoe (10/14/16) Janet Fullwood

Carson Valley, Nevada (10/13/16) Janet Fullwood

Rainbows teased travel writer Janet Fulwood all the way home, as she drove from the Carson Valley through Lake Tahoe on her way back to Sacramento. At moments, “it was too windy to even open the door.”

Nancy Wright spent two and a half days in the Mammoth Area, concluding that Friday’s heavy winds and rain “really started stripping the aspen of their leaves.”

Inlet II, Bishop Creek Canyon (10/12/16) Nancy Wright

Groves at Cardinal Village (10/12/16) Nancy Wright

Rock Creek Rd (10/12/16) Nancy Wright

McGee Creek (10/12/16) Nancy Wright

Conway Summit (10/13/16) Nancy Wright

Silver Lake, June Lake Loop (10/13/16) Nancy Wright

Snowcreek Golf Course, Mammoth Lakes (10/13/16) Nancy Wright

Old Mammoth Rd. Mammoth Lakes (10/13/16) Nancy Wright

Convict Lake (10/13/16) Nancy Wright

Friday…

Tom’s Place (10/15/16) Carol Novacek

Convict Lake (10/15/16) Carol Novacek

Carol Novacek was driving south from June Lake on US 395 on Friday, writing she’d expected to see a lot less color, since it had been so windy and rainy the previous day, but was impressed by the beauty still seen from the highway, now accented with peaks dusted with snow. At Convict Lake, the stands were “glorious at full peak” and as she sped past Tom’s Place, Carol captured caught a blurred image of golden aspen still surrounding the community.

Saturday…

Mono County color spotter Jeff Simpson writes that “despite intense wind, we still have plenty of color to be seen.” He visited June Lake and Lundy Canyon, yesterday, returning with these images. And as his photo of Conway Summit attests (top of post), even trees that have lost leaves can provide a beautiful picture.