,

Unsynchronized North Lake

(North Lake, Bishop Creek Canyon – 10/3/17) – Here’s a report from Bishop Creek Canyon, recorded today.

North Lake and Sabrina Lake are Near Peak, though with large areas of Patchy color. South Lake has Peak color and is glorious!

Please note: This autumn is very different in Bishop Creek Canyon from previous ones in that the color is not synchronized. Groves in the same area are at all stages, from Just Starting to Past Peak.

So, if you delay visiting, you’re likely to miss it all, as no one area is going to peak all at once this year.  Only South Lake has that potential, but even the green among the groves is spectacular, there. Expect to see bare limbs near brilliant color, beside green trees.

Bottom Line… GO NOW!

/3 Comments/by
,

Plumas County Fills With Color

Bigleaf maple, Plumas County (9/30/17) Jeff Luke Titcomb

Plumas County color spotter Jeff Luke Titcomb took a road trip in search of fall color.

Bigleaf maple, Plumas County (9/30/17) Jeff Luke Titcomb

Wild Locust, Plumas County (9/30/17) Jeff Luke Titcomb

Dogwood, Plumas County (9/30/17) Jeff Luke Titcomb

Plumas County, Plumas County (9/30/17) Jeff Luke Titcomb

Dogwood, Plumas County (9/30/17) Jeff Luke Titcomb

He rode along Hideaway Road and Round Valley Road to the Round Valley reservoir, then up from there to the top, and back down to Canyon Dam near Lake Almanor.

He found the Canyon Dam side not as far along with weeks to go until peak color. Though the dogwoods are coming along and bigleaf maples are half way there.

River bottoms along Wolf Creek in Greenville are full of yellows and reds beside Hideaway Road.

A tree that is often confused (wild locust) are in full yellow. Jeff reports that the higher you go in the area,  the longer it seems the color will take to peak, though the valley floor is turning fast.

Plumas County (3,500’) – Patchy (10-50%)

/by
,

Big Pine Creek – Snow Still at 10,000’

Big Pine Creek (9/30/17) Jim Gardner

Big Pine Creek (9/30/17) Jim Gardner

Big Pine Creek (9/30/17) Jim Gardner

Color spotter Jim Gardner visited the north fork of Big Pine Creek to find the aspen peaking near Lon Chaney’s cabin, and that there’s still some snow on the ground at over 10,000’.

Big Pine Creek (10,000’) – Peak GO NOW!

/by
,

Violent Sex Returns to the Redwoods

Bull Elk in Rut, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park (10/1/17) Max Forster

Roosevelt Elk are in rut at Redwood National & State Parks (Orick) where deciduous leaves began changing fast last week, North Coast color spotter Max Forster reports.

The annual elk rut is one of California’s colorful displays in autumn, as massive bull elks challenge one another for the right to mate with herds of female elk cows. Young suitors playfight one another while bloody battles occur between the existing bull of a herd and his rivals.

It’s elk-styled Match.com, but with bugling, violent challenges and fights to exhaustion, as the ladies watch indifferently from afar.

Corkscrew Leaning Maple, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park (10/1/17) Max Forster

Elsewhere in the redwood forest of northwestern California, bigleaf maple that have received full sun began transitioning last week, while the vines and maple that haven’t gotten direct sun have not yet begun to change.

Don’t expect a big showy splash of color, but for the true fan of autumn color, it is gorgeous, as the vines, maple and poison oak show chartreuse, yellow and crimson in rolling displays as sunlight hits them through the tall trees.

Max writes that “Notable sections for big leaf maple over the next week include Lost Man Creek in Redwood National Park and between the Corkscrew Tree and Zig Zag #1 Trail in Prairie Creek State Park.”

Redwood National & State Parks (Sea level to 500′) – Patchy (10-50%)

/by
,

Spotting Color: Angeles National Forest

Bigleaf maple, Vincent Gulch (10/1/17) Naresh Satyan

Pasadenan Naresh Satyan describes the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California as not truly a fall color hotspot, though like all of California’s mountain ranges, there are exceptional spots of bright color.

Bigleaf maple, San Gabriel National Monument (10/1/17) Naresh Satyan

Bigleaf maple in the chapparal, San Gabriel National Monument (10/1/17) Naresh Satyan

Bigleaf maple, San Gabriel National Monument (10/1/17) Naresh Satyan

Poison oak, San Gabriel National Monument (10/1/17) Naresh Satyan

Poison oak, San Gabriel National Monument (10/1/17) Naresh Satyan

He reports that the few bigleaf maple are at or near peak color are found between 4000’ and 6000′.

The Sheep Mountain Wilderness in San Gabriel National Monument along the East Fork of the San Gabriel River and its tributaries provides the best color.

“It is a remote area with very few trails, but the maples are accessible along the Mine Gulch trail from Vincent Gap (Vincent Gulch Divide) on the Angeles Crest Highway. There is plenty of poison oak this year in very beautiful shades of pink and red, at peak now at elevations near 5000′ and moving down,” Naresh states.

As we’ve declared previously, look but don’t touch!

Sheep Mountain Wilderness, San Gabriel National Monument (4,000-6,000’) – Near Peak to Peak GO NOW!

/by
,

Shasta Cascade A Harvest of Events

Mt. Shasta, Upper Sacramento River (10/21/16) Philip Reedy

Patchy color is appearing early across the Shasta Cascade, providing opportunities to harvest an autumn drive with a car show, road race, trout derby and all sorts of festivals (music, food, and fun). Here are some of the events that will be happening up north on this coming and the following weekend.

Oct. 6

– Olive Festival, Corning Car Show

 

Oct. 7  

– Bizz Johnson Marathon  ( Susanville)

– Harvest Moon Liberty Fest ( Anderson River Park )

– Johnny Appleseed Days . ( Paradise )

– Manton Apple Festival ( Manton )

– Salmon Festival (Weaverville)

 

Oct. 14 

– Apple Harvest Festival . ( Mc Cloud) .

– Shasta Lake Trout Derby

/by

Exotics Light Up Grass Valley

Exotic maple, Grass Valley (10/1/17) Robert Kermen

Non-native, landscaped maples are lighting up Grass Valley in hues of orange and salmon, Robert Kermen reports.

Fall color creds to whoever can ID this type of maple. Update: And Evelyn gets the creds, identifying the tree as Acer Rubrum (red maple), common to eastern and central North America.

 

/5 Comments/by
,

North Lake Nears Peak

 

North Lake Road (10/1/17) Star Masterton

The North Lake Road, up Bishop Creek Canyon, is often a destination for photographers, as it was on Sunday for Star Masterton who found the aspen along North Lake Road, North Lake and high areas of Bishop Creek Canyon nearing peak, as seen in her photographs.

Update: I visited North Lake on Monday, though (as color spotter David Senesak communicated by email), the trees are not “synchronized.”

Various groves are in all stages of peak: just starting, patchy, near peak, peak and past peak… all at the same location. Nevertheless, there’s no other way to assess the area than to classify it as Near Peak, because North Lake will continue to peak as these groves turn. And, if we don’t classify it as Near Peak, then many of you who planned to visit will miss it, by waiting for it to get perfect. So, GO NOW!

There is beauty to be found in Bishop Creek Canyon this year, but it takes work to capture it. The Groves Above Cardinal Village are past peak in a huge swath, but other areas are peaking, near peak or patchy. It’s not the big area of turning color we’ve seen in past years.

Regardless, fall can provide a brilliant splashes of color, as seen in the portraiture/fashion photograph at left. Star took it along the North Lake Road where some of the aspen look dried out, but catch the right light and you can get a magical image as Star did.

North Lake Road (9,000′) – Near Peak GO NOW!

North Lake (9,225′) – Near Peak GO NOW!

Groves Above Cardinal Village – Near Peak GO NOW!

North Lake, Bishop Creek Canyon (10/1/17) Star Masterton

Groves Above Cardinal Village (10/1/17) Star Masterton

Sabrina Approach (10/1/17) Star Masterton

/by
,

September in Golden Gate Park

The Panhandle, GG Park, SF (10/1/17) Darrell Sano

Japanese Tea Garden, GG Park, SF (10/1/17) Darrell Sano

Golden Gate Park is one of America’s great central parks, well-used by The City’s residents and a great place to see bright color in autumn.

Bay Area color spotter Darrell Sano is better known for his shots of the east bay and Berkeley Hills, but he spent Saturday exploring Golden Gate Park.

His 9.1-mile walk led from the Hayes Valley to Fell Street along the panhandle, finding the park (as usual) alive with people, picnics, cyclers, runners and walkers in the outdoors enjoying the brilliant morning Autumn light.

Japanese Tea Garden, GG Park, SF (10/1/17) Darrell Sano

To Darrell, the park’s striking Conservatory of Flowers looked brilliant in the morning light, but he hastened to the Japanese Tea Garden via Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive and was delivered a treat.

There were juxtapositions of yellow gingko starting to turn, and Japanese tiger lily (Lilium leichtlinii) with red leaves to overlayed.

Inside the Tea Garden, color change was Just Starting (it’s an early November peak, normally), as the large ginkgo trees and most of the Japanese Maple still lacked color.

Golden Gate Park, San Francisco – Just Starting (0-10%)

 

 

 

Layers of color near the Music Concourse, GG Park (9/30/17) Darrell Sano

Mission palm and autumn blooms/color (9/30/17) Darrell Sano

/by
,

Sometimes, Fall Color Crawls

Caterpillar, Lassen Volcanic NP (9/30/17) Shanda Ochs

Fall color doesn’t need to be hanging from a branch. It sometimes can be crawling on the ground, as Shanda Ochs, park guide at Lassen Volcanic National Park shows in her shot of a fuzzy fall time caterpillar.

Shanda shows what we often recommend, look down, not just up when searching for fall color.

Manzanita Lake, LVNP (9/30/17) Shanda Ochs

At Lassen Volcanic, willows surrounding Manzanita Lake (northwest entrance) are golden, carrying “hints of orange” and in the Near Peak range.

Rabbitbrush, Manzanita Lake, LVNP (9/30/17) Shanda Ochs

Rabbitbrush continue to show blooms, with Lassen Peak in the background, across the lake.

Blacks Cottonwood, LVNP (9/30/17) Shanda Ochs

Alder leaves, dented with black spot, still proudly shine newly golden as they lose their green.

 

 

 

 

 

Deer and Willows, Manzanita Lake, LVNP (9/30/17) Shanda Ochs

 

Manzanita Lake, Lassen Volcanic NP (5,900′) – Transitioning from Patchy to Near Peak (10 – 75%)

/by