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You Had To Be There

Groves Above Cardinal Village, M Fork Bishop Creek (9/27/22) Gary Young

How many times has someone told me that?

No one needed to tell Gary Young. He was there last night in Bishop Creek Canyon when the sky burned out and waning sunset light warmed peaking aspen. It was a scene right out of J.R.R. Tolkien’s imagination.

He wrote that he drove up South Lake Road just to see if anything was happening, and found, “The huge Aspen grove just past Bishop Creek Lodge near Mist Falls … still completely green. About a mile up the road is where it changes dramatically. The hillsides have turned yellow, gold and orange. I was not expecting this since four days earlier we were at 10,200 ft above Rock Creek Lake and the colors were still very green.”

As we reported yesterday, “It happens fast.”

South Lake Rd, S Fork Bishop Creek (9/27/22) Gary Young
East of Tyee Lakes Trailhead, S Fork Bishop Creek (9/27/22) Gary Young
Table Rock Campground, S Fork Bishop Creek (9/27/22) Gary Young
With darkness approaching, he decided to see what Hwy 168 had to offer below North Lake and had time to press the shutter once, before the light was gone.
 
Gary reports “very sporadic color … with still a lot of green mixed in with the color.” In our view, that couldn’t provide better fall color viewing conditions, as it is the blend of colors that provide the most dramatic displays. This week should be glorious on the east side, but then Gary Young has already demonstrated that.
 
You had to be there.

South Fork Bishop Creek

  • Mist Falls and the Groves Above Bishop Creek Lodge (8,350′) – Patchy (10 – 50%)

Middle Fork Bishop Creek

  • Groves Above Cardinal Village (8,550′) – Near Peak (50 -75%) Go Now.
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/2 Comments/by
2 replies
  1. Bill Marson says:

    Nice report! I plan to be up in the Bishop Canyon this weekend! In Gary’s sunset image of the Groves Above Cardinal Village, is that some overlook? … possibly from the road that goes up to North Lake? Or, was that taken right from the roadside of Hwy 168?

    • John Poimiroo says:

      Bill, I’ve not been to that exact location, though the map indicates one of two possibilities: North Lake Rd or an unpaved road leading from Cardinal Village. I’ll ask Gary. – JP

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