Shasta County Steals the Show
Color spotter Philip Reedy has done it again, going the extra mile to capture fabulous fall color photos.
“Last week I toured parts of Siskiyou County along the Upper Sac,” Reedy said. “This week my buddy John and I did another nearly 500-mile day east of Redding.”
The friends drove from Davis to Redding, then headed northeast along Highway 299 as far as Lake Britton. From there they spent some time at Lassen NP before heading back home.
“Our first stop along 299 was the very beautiful Potem Falls, about 40 miles from Redding and at a fairly low elevation of 1200 ft.,” Reedy said. “There are some very nice colors right now, mainly big leaf maples. Most of the Indian Rhubarb is still green and will hopefully turn in the next couple of weeks.”
From there they headed on to Burney Falls and Lake Britton.
“There are a lot of nice colors along 299 between the town of Montgomery Creek and Burney, with many of the mountainsides covered in colorful oak trees,” Reedy said. “Burney Falls is definitely past peak, so unless you just want to view the falls, don’t expect much in the way of color. Lake Britton still has a bit of color along the shore, but it is also fading fast and probably isn’t worth a long drive.”
They finished up at Lassen NP and Manzanita Lake where there was very little color left, just a few trees and grasses still wearing a bit of yellow and gold.
“I was there a year ago and the park was covered in nearly two feet of snow, but nothing yet this year,” he said. “Like Highway 299, Highway 44 has a lot of nice colors once you get to lower elevations on the road to Redding.”
