LA’s very own KTLA-5 asked Kyle Cotner, who compiles The Foliage Report what he thought of California’s fall color. He replied, “While California is not known for fall colors, it absolutely is a sneaky great fall foliage state.”
Bravo, Kyle. Couldn’t agree more. To read KTLA’s review of where to find sneaky great color in California, CLICK HERE.
Indian Rhubarb (Darmera) is the northern Sierra’s signature fall color plant. At peak, its large, fan-shaped leaves turn shades of blood red, apricot, magenta, saffron, viridian and gold. They hang over streams in such profuse perfection that they appear to have been landscaped.
Plumas County color spotter Michael Beatley checked on the status of the Darmera at Oakland Camp, yesterday.
Oakland Camp is a summer camp operated by the City of Oakland for its children. Oakland Camp Road, a public access road near Quincy, passes through the camp skirting Spanish Creek whose banks are lined for several miles with Darmera.
Beatley reports that the rhubarb are Near Peak and should peak within the coming week. He also noted that Oakland Camp Road is lined with hundreds of black oak trees that have turned red, orange and yellow, providing colorful surroundings for a setting that should explode in color within the week.
The deeply golden spear tips seen above are near perfect examples of peak Black cottonwood. Mark Hoshovsky photographed them at the Silver Mountain Historic Site on Ebbetts Pass (CA 4) in Alpine County.
Black cottonwood have a spear-shaped leaf and rounded stem, whereas Frémont cottonwood leaves are broader, have a scalloped edge and a flat stem. Black cottonwood grow mostly above 7,000′ whereas Frémont cottonwood are usually found growing below 6,000′. With these guidelines, it’s easy to tell them apart.
Discerning the differences between cottonwood and aspen is even easier, though the two are often mistaken.
Quaking aspen leaves are smaller, more rounded and mostly yellow, though also can be golden, orange or red. The trunks are radically different, Aspen trunks are smooth and white or green. Cottonwood are brown and rough. Cottonwood and aspen both thrive near water sources, though aspen like smaller creeks, while cottonwood prefer bigger streams.
On Hoshovsky’s drive from the East Fork of the Carson River, along Monitor Pass and past Heenan Lake, he passed the burn scar from the 2015 Washington Fire. The conifers are nearly all gone, but willows and aspen are thriving in the sunlight and promise to provide an increasingly spectacular display for decades to come.
There’s usually no lack of photographs submitted from the Hope Valley. This year, not so much.
That surprised Mark Hoshovsky, though he thought it might be because the Hope Valley looked short of peak when he visited this week … perhaps an explanation.
We disagree. The Hope Valley seems to be peaking normally. Peak began, as it usually does, near the Wylder Resort, with trees in the higher groves soon past peak. Others there have been peaking stand by stand … ordinary for Wylders. The other prime locations in Hope Valley have been developing as they usually do, as well.
It is west of Woods Lake on CA 88, where the color has been disappointing and less than previously recorded.
So, Hoshovsky took a different path. He chronicled the West Carson River near the Wylder Resort, then hiked up toward Luther Pass (CA 89) to Scotts Lake and back through Big Meadow. He was impressed by the scenery on the way to Scotts Lake, along a trail that passed through “lots of aspen, plus some huge trees up to 20′ around at their base (Juniper, Jeffrey pine and others).”
His Frostian solution of “taking the path less-traveled by” resulted in him scoring a First Report for the trail to Scotts Lake, as it had not been reported or photographed previously.
Perhaps his experience explains why fewer photographs from Hope Valley have been submitted this year … color spotters are looking for new places to explore and chronicling less-traveled places, as he did..
Lundy Canyon (northwest of Mono Lake) is now peaking and prime to be hiked. It is one of the best fall color hikes in California, if not the best.
What makes it so good is that it has it all .. gorgeous color, wildlife, decaying cabins, lakes and ponds, waterfalls (3) and breathtaking views throughout. Modern Hiker describes it as a 3.9 mile hike that takes 3 hours to do and has a 800′ gain. We describe it as pure joy.
If you have never hiked Lundy Canyon, now’s the time, as it is now Hike of the Week.
Photographers have been peeling layers off of Onion Valley this autumn. First Soyoung Kim hiked beyond it to Kearsarge Pass. Now, Mark Harding shows a wriggling strip of color climbing Independence Creek.
Hiking out of Onion Valley is considered to be epic. Modern Hiker describes the hike from Onion Valley to Mount Whitney as a long hike that allows the hiker to experience some of the best high country in both Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, avoiding the brutal climb from Whitney Portal.
Most readers of California Fall Color are not out for as big a hike as the one from Onion Valley affords, though the drive up to Onion Valley Campground is one that introduces an alpine experience without the effort. And, the twisting ascent to the campground (top picture) is the sort of narrow, fragile climb experienced classically in the Alps by struggling cyclists. It is a vicarious layer to be peeled from this onion.
This Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides) sure found the right spot to observe fall color in Mono County. Mark Harding spotted it atop a bare perch along Lobdell Lake Rd.
Mountain bluebirds prefer high elevations and open woodlands. They migrate in late fall. So, this snowbird might eventually fly over the Sierra to the foothills or down through Nevada to Arizona once the berries are off the bush.
Mark Harding spotted it while spotting fall color along the road and at nearby Molybdenite Creek. Also spotting the thrush was a Red Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis). Red Tailed Hawks prefer squirrels for dinner, but a bluebird is also on the menu.
Numerous reports of spectacular peak color have prompted us to declare Sonora Pass and Lobdell Lake Rd as Drive of the Week. Mark’s photographs reinforce that decision.
Fall color is over the top at many Mono County locations, including its passes: Monitor, Sonora and Tioga, but don’t delay. Peak has now dropped to between 8,000 and 8,500′.
Drive of the Week is the Sonora Pass to Lobdell Lake and return. Lobdell Lake Rd is the best it’s been seen in recent years. AWD is recommended. Include a sunset visit to the east side of Sonora Pass.
Peak of the Week is Lundy Canyon. Though now Near Peak, it should be fabulously colored in coming days.
ROCK CREEK CANYON
CROWLEY LAKE/MCGEE CREEK, CONVICT LAKE
JUNE LAKE LOOP
BENTON & 120 EAST
LEE VINING / LUNDY
BRIDGEPORT / VIRGINIA LAKES / DUNDERBERG / SUMMERS
LOBDELL / SONORA PASS/ WALKER / COLEVILLE / TOPAZ
Little seen or known to most visitors to Lake Sabrina is that a heart of Quaking aspen grows along the hillside to the right (north slope) and behind the store at the lake. You have to be on the south slope looking across the lake, as Angie Plaisted was, to see it.
Angie scores a First Report for being the first color spotter to capture an image of Sabrina’s heart. She accomplished this first at one of the most photographed fall color locations in California.
Fall color is largely Past Peak at Lake Sabrina, but it’s still not without its beauty, as her cell phone images show.
Kearsarge Pass lies on the Sierra Crest at 11,709′ beyond Onion Valley (9,600’). Because Onion Valley usually has disappointing fall color, few collor spotters venture past it in search of autumn brilliance. Soyoung Kim was an exception, posting a First Report for Kearsarge Pass and making it Hike of the Week.
The pass (named after a nearby mine which was named in honor of USS Kearsarge which defeated CSS Alabama during the American Civil War) is a favorite hiking route that travels from Onion Valley in the Eastern Sierra, west to Kings Canyon National Park.
The Onion Valley is at 9,600′ though she found an Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja naja) still blooming at a high elevation. The wildflowers grow up to timberline, attracting hummingbirds to its tasty nectar, so wrote old friends Lynn and Jim Wilson in their guide, Wildflowers of Yosemite.
