On this Thanksgiving Day, californiafallcolor.com is thankful for our color spotters who are the heart and soul of making this website happen. I sent out several, specific requests this year and you all delivered, every time. Thank you.
For 2024 they are as follows:
Aaron Thom, Angie Plaisted, Anirudh Natekar, Barbara Richter, Barbara Steinberg, Betsy Forsyth, Bill McFall, Bruce Wendler, Chitao Yuan, Dakota Snider, Dan Rastler, Dave Pabinquit, Ernie Cowan, Frank McDonough, Gary Skipper II, Gavin Zaid, Goran Grbic, Emily Bryant, Haoqi Yang, Jack Stein, Janet Fullwood, Jason Bao, Jeff Simpson/Eastern Sierra Marketing, Jeff Titcomb, Jennifer Natale, John Natelli, John Poimiroo, John Richardson, Jon Miller, Julie Kirby, Kathy Jonokuchi, Kim Kovacs, Kurt J. Slapnik, Lance Pifer, Laura Christman, Samantha Lindberg, Laura Wattles, Jenna Andersen, Berlin Del Aguila, Lisa Wilkerson-Willis, Lucas Yan, Marc Hoshovsky, Mark Harding, Mauricio Gutierrez, Michael Beatley, Michael Kwok, Michael Oliver, Michelle Pontoni, Mike Fernandez, Millie Cervantes, Liz Grans, Amanda Carlson, Nhi Casey, Sarah Nuttall, Parnia, Patrick Luscri/Indiana Drones and the Art of Aerial Photography, Patrick McGowan, Peter Robbins, Philip Reedy, Jack Edwards, Karen Kleven, Rick Horn, Robert Kermen, Ruth Hartman, Scott Frank, Scott Quirsfeld, Shelley Hunter, Shishir Iyer, Soyoung Kim, Steve Arita, Steven D. Jones, Sylvia Wright, Vishal Mishra, Bob Blesse, Ruby Jay
If somehow, we missed you, please know it wasn’t intentional. We are truly indebted to every contributor.
As I plowed through my second season as leaf-peeper-in-charge of this website, there were two stand out moments. The first was this year’s extended season. As one color spotter put it, we saw a funky mix of color and it may be the longest season on record! Areas remained at peak much longer than usual, most likely due to the beautiful fall weather we saw in the state. Warm days and cool nights kept the colors vibrant, longer.
The second was when my 7-year-old daughter came home from bike camp and told me she had found an awesome location for fall color. She then proceeded to plan a bike ride for us to go check out the spot, together. It warmed my heart that she was paying attention to what mom was doing and that she was most likely the littlest leaf peeper contributing to the site. I couldn’t do what I do without the support of my family.
Special thanks are expressed to Inyo County, Bishop Area Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau, Mono County Tourism, Destination Plumas County and Mammoth Lakes Tourism for underwriting California Fall Color, and to the many reporters and media who carried our reports and gave attention to what we have shown about California’s fall color.
Our deepest thanks go to the more than 93,000 readers who read, followed, reacted to and commented here and on our social media pages. You are still, after all, the reason we do this.
The photographs selected for this year’s video represent the Best of the Week photos from this year’s weekly reports. They demonstrate some of the finest photography of 2024. To be considered for the video, photos must be high resolution (300 dpi), not watermarked, and submitted within one week of capturing them.
A special thanks to my friend, Dakota Snider, for putting this year’s video together.
And I will forever and always thank the talented Mr. John Poimiroo for sharing this very special piece of California with me and trusting me to adopt his baby. He is always there for me, whether it be submitting a report or answering a question. I’m glad he has been able to pursue other fun things this year!
While autumn doesn’t end today, we begin to dial back reports and will post less frequently. We’ve also stopped sending weekly updates to meteorologists, travel and outdoor writers.
So, enjoy your Thanksgiving Day and plan an Orange Friday of fall color spotting, tomorrow.
California – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW! – In our hearts, California is always at its best. We’ll see you next autumn, dude.
Lovely. Thanks.
Thank you for all your hard work on bringing us color watchers together!!
LARA: Very nicely done. You did a great job of culling all our pictures into great slide shows. I am sure John is very happy with the way things have been done. As always this website has helped us plan trips to see the colors but this year we seemed be a week early or late but we will be at again next year. We enjoyed all the pictures none the less. Hope you may have a chance to post an occasional winter picture from some of your regular leaf peepers like Phil Reedy as I continue to check the sight periodically during the off season. Glad to see you daughter is involved!!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU AND YOURS!!!
Thank you, Steve! Yes, we will still be posting the occasional winter photo. Thanks for being part of what we do! Happy Holidays to you, too!
Thanks a lot Lara! We all are super grateful to you for all your hard work while maintaining this incredibly useful website.