Calaveras Big Trees State Park (10/22/16) Jeff Hemming
Calaveras Big Trees State Park (10/22/16) Jeff Hemming
Color spotter Jeff Hemming spent Saturday in Calaveras Big Trees, North Grove. He reports “Lots of small pockets of color. Lots of red, but still some yellow.”
The forest floor sparkles with stunted rose, orange, pink and lime dogwoods.
Though he cautions, “Might not last much longer, especially if its supposed to rain this next week.”
Calaveras Big Trees State Park (4,800′) – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
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High winds finished what was left of fall color in Mono County, reports color spotter Crys Black who visited Mammoth Lakes and June Lakes, this past weekend. Here’s her report:
Saturday, Oct 22
I started Saturday in the Mammoth Lakes Basin where almost all color was stripped with the exception of Old Mammoth Rd, between the ghost town and Sherwin Creek Rd. Hoping that lower elevations would be better, I headed towards Bishop. I stopped at Convict Lake and there is a little color left but it’s past peak. Thanks to last weekend’s report, I took Lower Creek Rd and it is Peak Go Now. At the lower elevations, Bishop and Big Pine were at Peak with great color especially at Round Valley. Aspendell was full peak but all areas around it were completely stripped and past peak.
Twin Lakes(10/23/16) Crys Black
Lundy Canyon (10/22/16) Crys Black
Aspendell (10/22/16) Crys Black
Walker River (10/23/16) Crys Black
Sunday, Oct 23
June Lake is almost completely past peak with some areas where color is clinging through the wind. Lundy Canyon was still peak, go now, with the color nicely contrasted against the snowcapped mountains. A huge surprise was Twin Lakes, Bridgeport. This was spectacular in most places so peak, go now! Antelope Valley color is getting worn but still great from Coleville to Topaz lake, peak, go now. There are splashes of color on 89 around 7000 ft and around Poor Boy Creek east of Markeeville, which is especially striking against the charred earth, and on 88, especially at Crystal Springs. Hope Valley is still ablaze but the color is getting muted. Still warrants a Peak but it’ll likely not survive the next storm.
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West Dry Creek Rd., Sonoma County (10/23/16) Darrell Sano
Quiver Vineyard, West Dry Creek Rd., Sonoma County (10/23/16) Darrell Sano
West Dry Creek Rd., Sonoma County (10/23/16) Darrell Sano
Westside Rd., Sonoma (10/23/16) Darrell Sano
West Dry Creek Rd., Sonoma (10/23/16) Darrell Sano
Dry Creek Road, Sonoma (10/23/16) Darrell Sano
We’ve enjoyed the drive Darrell Sano took on Sunday, along Dry Creek Rd. in Sonoma County.
At this time of year, the pastoral scene is accented with yellow, orange and red. As Darrell writes, “It’s a beautiful drive, as the road narrows to sometimes a single, winding road, void of limo’s and heavy traffic.
“The morning air was crisp and cool, and although the grapes have been harvested for the year, I saw pickers harvesting the other fruit–beautiful olives–that becomes olive oil.
“Wine Country is different from the Sierra, there are still vistas of pure green vines, but turn a corner and then a wash of brilliant red comes into view, that then transitions to a past peak field of brown-ochre.
Gloria Ferrer vineyards (10/23/16) Raymond Pangilinan
“West Dry Creek offered the perfect fall drive at a very slow pace, and although there are still fields yet to turn, I would recommend to go now. With the rain storms heading our way, don’t take a chance, get up to wine country and enjoy the views.”
Couldn’t have said it better.
Dry Creek Road, Sonoma County – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
Mt. Shasta, Upper Sacramento River (10/21/16) Philip Reedy
OK, you should catch and release native trout in California, and when you catch great photos as Philip Reedy did yesterday, you release them to us to share with our readers.
Yesterday. Phillip and a friend headed to Dunsmuir to do some fly fishing photography in hopes of catching a background of fall colors.
Along Cantera Loop, Philip reports, “lots of leaves have already fallen but some trees are still green as well. The view of Mt Shasta is worth the trip as the snow last week covered the mountain completely.”
California Fall Color includes outdoor sports like fly fishing surrounded by autumn color. The upper Sacramento River is full of such images right now, and full of trophy trout.
Lassen Volcanic color spotter Shanda Ochs reports peak color at Manzanita Lake.
Ducks winging their way south are stopping at the lake, providing avian color to the willows and cottonwood near shore. Shanda says only the mountain alder are still lime. So that means, conditions permitting, that color will continue to develop at Lassen Volcanic for the next couple of weeks.
Manzanita Lake (10/21/16) Shanda Ochs
Manzanita Lake (10/21/16) Shanda Ochs
Manzanita Lake (10/21/16) Shanda Ochs
Manzanita Lake, Lassen Volcanic NP – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
Spanish Creek at Oakland Camp, Quincy (10/20/16) Mike Nellor
Spanish Creek at Oakland Camp, Quincy (10/20/16) Mike Nellor
Spanish Creek at Oakland Camp, Quincy (10/20/16) Mike Nellor
Spanish Creek at Oakland Camp, Quincy (10/20/16) Mike Nellor
Spanish Creek
Bold splashes of harlequin colored Indian rhubarb (Darmera peltata) brighten Spanish Creek at Oakland Recreation Camp near Quincy, as captured by local color spotter Mike Nello with his Samsung CSC.
This is the first weekend to see peak color in Plumas County. The best way to find fall color is to use the California Fall Color map on this site and go to those areas showing Near Peak to Peak color.
Exploring Plumas County’s backroads in the Shasta Cascade region never disappoints.
Spanish Creek at Spanish Camp, Quincy – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
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Spots of fall color can still be found and enjoyed in and near Mammoth Lakes, though the energy there has shifted from enjoying autumn adventures to colorful events happening from late-October to mid-November, leading up to the reopening of Mammoth Mountain and the start of winter sports.
Nevertheless, Mammoth Lakes color spotter Josh Wray had to get in one more photo of how he and his buds enjoy autumn, with the preceding shot of hiking at Convict Lake, just south of Mammoth Lakes. Don’t you just want to be there? I sure do.
Fall color still rings the lake trail and picnic areas, though the stands running up the mountainside no longer carry color.
Convict Lake (10/18/16) Josh Wray
Convict Lake (10/18/16) Josh Wray
Josh anticipates that next week will be the last for a fall color report from Mammoth Lakes. Though, it’s evident from this list of upcoming happenings that the fun never stops there.
Convict Lake – Peak (75-10%) GO NOW! – The color has mostly fallen around the lake, though color near the campground and in spots along the trail remains at peak. This is the last week of peak color, there.
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Coffee Creek Rd., Trinity Center (10/21/16) Jeri Rangel
Coffee Creek (10/21/16) Jeri Rangel
Coffee Creek Rd. (10/21/16) Jeri Rangel
Ripple Creek Cabins, Eagle Lake Loop (10/21/16) Jeri Rangel
Dogwood, Trinity Center (10/21/16) Jeri Rangel
Eagle Creek Loop (10/21/16) Jeri Rangel
Swift Creek, No. Trinity Lake (10/21/16) Jeri Rangel
Dogwood, Hwy 3 (10/21/16) Jeri Rangel
Color spotter Ruth Hartman reports that Coffee Creek in the Shasta Cascade is nearing peak with lush bigleaf maple draping back country roads with bright yellow color.
She said this past week’s rain “made all the maples turn bright yellow all at once… Dogwood are all different colors from red and green, pink, faded pink and still green.”
Jeri Rangel sent these images of dogwood and bigleaf maple peaking. Other foliage still to peak include chartreuse climbing cucumber and orange black oak.
To get to Coffee Creek, from Redding, take CA-299 west to CA-3, then north. Along the way, you’ll pass Trinity Lake, the Trinity Alps.
In the Trinity Alps — “One of the rarest and most beautiful trees on the continent, though not deciduous, is Brewer’s weeping spruce, picea breweriana, with its dark green boughs hanging in abstract, Seussian forms.”
This western side of the vast Shasta Cascade region is wild, beautiful and so lightly traveled that few photographers or leaf peepers get there.
We wrote last year, “The drive to Coffee Creek is along narrow roads that are flanked with bigleaf maple that dance and sway, littering the road with a carpet of spent leaves that swirl up in spirals as you pass.”
Ruth Hartman’s Coffee Creek dude ranch is best known for its stable of horses. There are miles of trails to ride on 367 acres of ranch property and the Trinity Wilderness area.
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Wooden Valley Winery, Suisun Valley (10/20/16) Marc Hoshovsky
Chimney Rock Winery, Stags Leap District, Napa Valley (10/20/16) Marc Hoshovsky
Redcap Vineyards, Angwin (10/20/16) Marc Hoshovsky
Lower Chiles Valley, Napa County (10/20/16) Marc Hoshovsky
South of Rudd Winery, Yountville (10/20/16) Marc Hoshovsky
Marc Hoshovski wondered why he hadn’t seen photos of fall color in the vineyards yet posted on this site.
We were wondering the same and hoping to get them from photographers and spotters before the best color peaked.
Marc’s shots show that the vineyards are prepped to peak successively over the next three weeks. That gives photographers and spotters plenty of time to head to the wine country and see magical color.
If you explore wine country backroads, be aware that the vines don’t all turn at the same time. The show develops by individual vineyard. As, autumn color matures by grape variety.
Napa County Vineyards (sea level to 2000’)Near Peak (50-75%) GO NOW! – Vineyards in Napa Valley and higher valleys to the east are turning yellow and red. There’s still a lot of green leaves to be seen, indicating they will continue to improve over the next two weeks. Higher elevations (1000-2000’) are showing more red than the floor of Napa Valley. Drive east on Howell Mountain Road (near St Helena) to Pope Valley and Chiles Valley for these colors.
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