A celestial light shines through the stain glass window and a weathered Gingko biloba that appears to be raising its branches in praise at Pasadena’s First United Methodist Church.
It is peaking within the urban forests of Los Angeles County. Exotics are in their glory, praise the Lord.
Last year I missed fall color in California. My family and I moved to the Midwest for an off-the-beaten path adventure and briefly traded pockets of gold set against grand landscapes for swaths of oranges and reds. While the extra color was a sight to be seen, there was something missing in my mind.
When fall happens in California, especially in the Eastern Sierra, there is a bustle of activity that goes with it — hiking, biking, fishing, and (my favorite) camping. These activities take on new life with fall color as their backdrop and this year, I couldn’t have been happier to be back home for the season.
Fall in the Eastern Sierra is known for supplying unreal landscapes beyond your wildest dreams. Pops of color set against the grandeur of the mountains make leaf-peeping in our region completely unique, and this year was no exception.
The past six weeks have been full of beautiful, and colorful, pockets of wonder around the region, but like all good things, fall must come to an end so we can look forward to it again next year. Currently, everything above 7,200′ in our region is past-peak. If you come up this weekend you might find some hidden color, but this is officially our last report of the season.
Snow has begun to fall and while right now it has left a light dusting that simply sprinkles the fall colors with a little extra magic, we expect bigger storms in the next week that will blow and freeze the leaves away. As the season comes to an end, we hope you’ll scroll back through the photos on this site from time to time to remind yourself of the past season and build your excitement for next year.
Oregon ash were continuing to carry peak lemony leaves along the Iron Horse Trail, in Danville on Saturday.
Danville is a town identified by its landmark trees. The lengths that Danville goes to protect the health and preservation of them stands out. It lists these trees as protected:
It also protects heritage and memorial trees. In one famous instance, Danville refused to allow a planted redwood tree from being cut which residents said blocked sunlight from their residence. The town even went so far as to erect a formidable structure to support a 350-year-old Valley oak which is the town’s symbol.
When it comes to delivering fall color, Danville delivers.
Between miles 18 and 19 on the American River Parkway is Ambassador Park, a compact riparian woodland containing Black oak, Oregon ash, Black walnut, Valley oak, Fremont cottonwood, California grape, California blackberry, Western sycamore, Box elder, California buckeye and Black elderberry.
Few of the cyclists, walkers or runners passing through this section are aware of the rich diversity of the woodland’s flora. They only know that it’s beautiful.
I spent Orange Friday cycling the Amertican River Parkway and peak is passing in the Gold Country, its cities and beside its rivers, though there is still a golden tone to the parkway, as seen above and in the following botanical images.
Gary Skipper II introduced California Fall Color readers to the privately managed Wind Wolves Preserve, last November. He returns today on Orange Friday to share the amazing breadth of wildlife he found this week at this remarkable location.
As we reported last year, “Located 32 miles southwest of Bakersfield, Wind Wolves is an ecologically distinctive place where the Transverse Ranges, Coast Ranges, Sierra Nevada, western Mojave Desert and San Joaquin Valley converge.
“Ranging from 640 to 6,005′, it has a wide array of landforms and habitats. And, at 93,000 acres it’s the west coast’s largest non-profit preserve.”
On his most recent outing, Skipper captured a bobcat. He’s two for two in that category in successive yearly reports. Gary also photographed an American Kestrel (Falco sparvarius), an American Pipit (Anthus rubescens), Mountain bluebird (Sialia currucoides), Tule elk (Cervus canadensis nannodes) and California Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus californicus).
Wind Wolves is not known for broad displays of fall foliage. Western sycamore, Frémont cottonwood, valley oak, poison oak and California grape are the only significant deciduous foliage to inhabit the preserve. So, it may not be high on a list for fall color photography. Yet, it has a dependable display during Thanksgiving week and is worth adding to a late November trip through the Central Valley.
There’s a lot to be thankful for during Thanksgiving Week. Leading the list on this site is the beauty of Autumn color.
On this Thanksgiving Day, CaliforniaFallColor.com is thankful to the 75 color spotters who contributed reports, photographs and videos in 2022.
They include (from first leaf): Philip Reedy, Hannah Meisner-Bogdahn, Samantha Deleo, Jeff Simpson, Daniel Stas, Alena Nicholas, Betsy Forsyth, Patrick Griley, Dakota Snider, Gary Young, Angie Plaisted, Linda Hennessy, Michelle Petit, John Pan, Parchers Resort, Michael Beatley, Jeff Luke Titcomb, Jim Van Matre, Trent Vierra, Sam Xi, Shanda Ochs, Amanda Carlson, Ken Robesky, Marianne Berttell Vaughn, Shawn Reeder, Soyojng Kim, Sharon Jiang, Legarlin Li, Bill McFall, Donna Mercer, Tim Zalaha, Bethany Anderson, Peter Robbins, Clayton Peoples, Gary Skipper II, Vishal Mishra, Curtis Kautzer, Steve Arita, Mark Hoshovsky, Mark Harding, Jeffrey Lu, Max Comer, Lucas Yan, James Wei, Dave Pabinquet, Ryan Boyd, Lyle Gordon, Julie Kirby, Wolfie, Grant Ly, Noah Sondgroth, Curtis Kautzer, Mark Hanning Lee, Bruce Wendler, David Sharp, John Natelli, Sandy Steinman, Frank McDonough, Salil Bhatt, Walt Gabler, Risa Wyatt, Michelle Pontoni, Kathy Jonokuchi, Bonnie Hulkower, Frank Dariano, Parrish Todd, Ellie Wilson, Steve “Spike” Spiker, Gianna Crest, Claudia Cram, Danielle Ormsby-Toombs, Lara Kaylor and Ron Tyler, who produced the above video.
If, somehow, we missed you, please know it wasn’t intentional. We are truly indebted to every contributor.
Special thanks are expressed to Inyo County Tourism, Bishop Area Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau, Mono County Tourism, Mammoth Lakes Tourism and Choose Redding 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.
Of course, this list is not complete without mentioning Joan, my bride of 52 years. She has pulled the car to the shoulder so that I could jump out to photograph particularly beautiful locations; humored my recording of color percentages, species and elevations; pointed out spectacular color; and tolerated my exuberance in showing her countless stunning photographs taken by our contributors.
Our deepest thanks go to the more than 70,000 readers who on over one hundred and twenty thousand occasions opened, read, followed, reacted to and commented here and on our social media pages. You are, after all, the reason we do this.
The photographs selected for this year’s video represent: what happened, the diversity of fall color across the state, and some of the finest photography of 2022.
If you would like your photographs considered for inclusion in next autumn’s video, we recommend that you submit “horizontal,” high resolution (300 dpi), not-watermarked photographs, within a week of having captured them. Pictures taken in places not often photographed have an advantage in getting selected, as competition is stiffest among pictures taken at popularly photographed destinations.
Autumn doesn’t end today. It continues for nearly a month longer. We’ll continue to post photos and reports, as received. Though today, we dial back reports and will post them less frequently. We’ve also stopped sending weekly updates to meteorologists, travel and outdoor writers.
Finally, this is my last autumn editing CaliforniaFallColor.com. The site will continue, but will be edited and published by someone else. You may see my photographs and comments occasionally as a contributor, but it’s finally time for this old travel editor to do a bit of traveling and enjoy retirement.
So, enjoy your Thanksgiving Day and plan an Orange Friday of fall color spotting, tomorrow.
CaliforniaFallColor.com will see you next autumn, dude.
The El Dorado Trail is one of two great multi-use trails in the greater Sacramento region. It, and the Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail on the American River Parkway serve over eight million recreational users, annually.
On Thanksgiving Day, both trails will be busy with walkers, runners, cyclists and skaters along their 69 miles of paved Class I and dirt track. Presently the trails are Peak to Past Peak, with black oak, bigleaf maple and (along the river) Frémont cottonwood and California walnut carrying peak orange, yellow and gold leaves. An occasional bush provides an intense flash of vermillion.
The El Dorado Trail travels 37 miles along an old railroad route from Folsom east to Camino, passing through historic downtown Placerville. Approximately 13 miles of the route is paved Class I bike path (El Dorado to Camino). The rest is unimproved dirt path.
Points of Interest along the El Dorado Trail, include the Gold Rush town of El Dorado, bucolic ranches, a tourist railroad, cat hill – populated by dozens of feral felines, the Weber Creek Bridge on which lovers attach locks engraved with their initials, historic downtown Placerville, an old railroad tunnel, bicycle overcrossing of US 50 and a six-mile climb up a 6% grade.
The Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail parallels the American River for 32 miles on Class I paved bike path from Old Sacramento east to Folsom Lake State Recreation Area. Additional hiking trails are available. Its points of interest include Old Sacramento, American River riparian habitats, a path trod by trapper/explorer Jedediah Smith, views of river rafters, the Nimbus Fish Hatchery, the Lake Natoma Loop, historic downtown Folsom, the Johnny Cash Art Trail, Folsom Dam and Folsom Lake.
Due to their exceptional recreational experience and fall color, the El Dorado and Jedidiah Smith Memorial trails are declared Thanksgiving Week’s California Fall Color Bike/Hike of the Week.
True to its position as California’s center of agricultural research, Davis is a study of peak color. Philip Reedy walked his hometown today and found its trees popping with color.
It had been some time since we’d taken a Sunday Drive. So, today we drove U.S. 50 through Placerville to Pleasant Valley to pick up a long-ignored wine club order. That allowed us to get close to fall color in the Sierra foothills.
Peak fall color is now down to sea level. Though, I can’t recall when it has endured this long, despite recent rain and snow in the Sierra. On this Sunday Drive, peak fall color was seen up to 3,000′.
Foothill vineyards vary from Patchy to Past Peak by grape variety. Chardonnay vines were carrying chartreuse to tawny leaves. Counoise were splotched with crimson, titian and amber
The foothills were rusted in places with orange and philamont-toned Black oak woodlands. Their muted color seemed to be assailed by invading evergreens.
As we returned by way of Snows Road through Camino, we passed a chestnut, orange and scarlet-banded field of blueberry bushes at Camino Ridge, a U-Pick farm along the Apple Hill Farm Trail. The bushes were picked clean of their berries, a sign that harvest had ended.
Indeed, this was the last “harvest” weekend at Apple Hill. Though the bins were still full of every type of apple imaginable, the pumpkin patch was gone and cars were being loaded with freshly cut Christmas trees for the Sunday Drive home.
