While California and the west have experienced exceptional color this autumn, it was disappointing in the northeast.
One of the warmest summers on record, one that extended into October and that kept nights warm, was credited for delaying color development across New England. Trees remained green into October.
Then, it rained as temperatures cooled, ruining the leaves.
California color spotter Crys Black enjoyed a trip to beantown this week and sent back these snaps of New England’s trees carrying Peak to Past Peak color.
Though the show was not New England’s typical brilliant scarlet, gold, gamboge and orange, its somber tones of marroon, burnt umber, auburn and feuille morte have a deadened dignity that remains beautiful, particularly in the soft glow of twilight.
New England – Peak to Past Peak, YOU ALMOST MISSED IT.
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5th Station, Mt Fuji, Japan (10/19/18) Julie Kirby
5th Station, Mt Fuji, Japan (10/19/18) Julie Kirby
Japan is renowned for its beautiful autumn colors. So, when color spotter Julie Kirby wrote saying she was traveling to Japan and hoped that the Japanese maple would be peaking, I encouraged her to send pictures.
She was there as fall color was at the upper end of Patchy, so the forests were not full of gold, orange, crimson and auburn. Though, her photographs show the beauty that a Japanese autumn promises.
Japanese Larch, 5th Station, Mt Fuji, Japan (10/19/18) Julie Kirby
Among the colorful trees Julie saw was the Japanese Larch, Larix kaempferi. This deciduous conifer was in the process of changing from green to yellow.
No similar deciduous conifers are native to California. Though, the Western Larch, Larix Occidentalis, grows in the northwest (bright yellow); the Subalpine Larch, Lariz lyallii, is a golden yellow native to parts of Canada and the northwest U.S.; and the Tamarack larch, Larix laricina, is native to northern Minnesota and Canada (orange-yellow).
Virginia creeper, Lake Ashi, Japan (10/19/18) Julie Kirby
Virginia creeper, Takayama, Japan (10/21/18) Julie Kirby
Just as we love Japanese maple, so too the Japanese return the favor with an affection for North American Virginia Creeper, Parthenocissus quinquefolia.
Julie saw brightly draped walls of purple, maize and scarlet Virginia Creeper flourishing on Honshu (Japan’s largest island) at Takayama and Lake Ashi.
Kenrokuen Garden, Kanazawa, Japan (10/23/18) Julie Kirby
Sakura (cherry), Kanazawa, Japan (10/22/18) Julie Kirby
Curiously, Virginia creeper, growing in North America, are being eaten voraciously by invasive Japanese beetles, Popillia japonica, a specie of scarab beetle. Whereas, in Japan, the beetle is not similarly destructive because they are controlled by native predators.
The Japanese are famous for their artistic gardens. Julie found beautiful trees at the Kenrokuen Garden in Kanazawa hinting of Autumn’s glory to emerge in coming weeks, Sakura, Prunus serrulata (cherry) trees now drop orange, red and golden leaves that spiral downward to reflecting ponds coursed by colorful koi fish.
Thinking about that image inspires Autumn Haiku:
Autumn winds twirling, Lifting leaves of gold and red, How I love the dance!
Southern California color spotter Alena Nicholas sends these images from Odessa a Ukrainian city on the Black Sea.
Odessa is the third-most populous city in the Ukraine and one of the most visited in Eastern Europe.
Alena’s images show a bit of the fall color that fills its parks, the city center and Black Sea area. The city’s innocence, playfulness and old-fashioned character is evident in her photos.
Odessa has been at the crossroads of conflicts throughout its existence. Originally a Greek city, it then became Tartar, then Ottoman, then Russian and Soviet, before being a self-governing nation and friend of the United States.
Several California cities have sister city or agreement relationships with Ukrainian cities: Sebastopol with Chyhyryn, Sonoma and Santa Rosa with Cherkassy, Davis with Uman and Santa Barbara with Yalta.
Often occupied and desired for its warm-water seaport, Odessa is called the “Pearl of the Black Sea.”
Odessa’s architecture reflects its diverse governance, though was heavily influenced by French and Italian neo-classical, art nouveau and renaissance styles during the Czarist period. That’s evident in Alena’s pictures of the city park and street scenes.
In autumn, Ukraine is beautiful to behold, as 52 percent of its trees are deciduous, including birch, aspen, maple, elm, acacia and ash. As evidenced above, Odessa loves trees and culture, with landmark plane trees shading violinists and downtown shoppers.
Odessa is the first European city to be featured by a Special Report on CaliforniaFallColor.com. When you travel to colorful fall destinations, send photos and we’ll report what you’ve seen.
Matthew Pacheco spent a week in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado and Utah, reporting that a 12-hour drive east of California, it’s looking incredible, right now, especially along Last Dollar Road, County roads 5, 7 and 9 off RT 62 into the Dallas Divide and along Owl Creek Pass, at peak for another week or two.
“Godly” was his description of the color seen in his beatific video.
San Juan Mountains, Colorado – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
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Rocky Mountain National Park was my “go to” place when I was a J-school grad student at Boulder.
It was where I would go, when completing a photography project, to wind down or just be inspired.
So when Cathy Tsao a color spotter from the North Bay sent these pictures of RMNP, I just had to share them.
Cathy apologized for the “overcast and drizzly” day, but no apology was necessary, many of the photographs I treasure most from my days at CU happened on drizzly days in the national park.
Colorado has large stands of aspen that spread across similar elevations throughout the Rockies. Because of this, Colorado’s fall color all seems to peak within two weeks. So, the rush to see the trees during that tight window is intense, as is the disappointment of not getting there in time.
@RockyNPS posts photographs of the fall color and it appears the color shows very similar in timing to the High Sierra, as peak color was being reported in late September.
Colorado is famous for panoramic swaths of yellow color, though at RMNP the aspen carry red, orange, yellow and lime, similar to that seen in the Hope Valley and Eastern Sierra.
Tsao found color to be approaching Past Peak this week along the park’s Bear Lake Road and Trail Ridge Road. She was impressed to see “some hillsides absolutely blanketed with color, as in the photo taken from the Glacier Gorge trailhead.”
If Yosemite is a landscape park, Rocky Mountain is a wildlife park, famous for its bighorn sheep, North American elk, moose, lynx, wolverine and endearing chipmunks.
Rocky Mountain National Park (7,800′) – Peak to Past Peak – GO NOW as YOU ALMOST MISSED IT!
Oberg Mountain Loop, Minnesota (9/26/18) Nick King
Oberg Mountain Loop, Minnesota (9/26/18) Nick King
Oberg Mountain Loop, Minnesota (9/26/18) Nick King
Oberg Mountain Loop, Minnesota (9/26/18) Nick King
Gooseberry Falls State Park, Minnesota (9/26/18) Nick King
Tettegouche State Park, Minnesota (9/26/18) Nick King
Oberg Mountain Loop, Minnesota (9/26/18) Nick King
Minnesota follows Alaska as the second northernmost state. It is so far north, that it’s motto is Star of the North, though most people think of it as the land of 10,000 lakes.
When Fresno color spotter Nick King, a reporter at Fox 26 KMPH, wrote saying he’d been hiking in Minnesota last week, I just had to ask, “Did you get any photographs of fall color?”
Nick’s photos establish that the land of 10,000 lakes does not disappoint when it comes to autumn color. A mix of deciduous maple (sugar, red), red twig dogwood, witch hazel, birch, poplar and smoke tree grow among coniferous pine and spruce in the state’s two main forests, the Laurentian mixed forest and Eastern broadleaf forest.
This color now carpets the undulating hills of the Sawtooth Mountains (north shore of Lake Superior) and Misquah Hills (northeast Minnesota), with a Peak blend of evergreens with red, orange, yellow and russet.
Nick wrote that he found the Oberg Mountain Loop trail to be truly spectacular. True to his training as a TV newsman, he wished he’d had a drone with him. Oberg Mountain was an easy three-mile hike on the north shore of Lake Superior, with about 500 feet of elevation gain.
This past week, he described, the treetops “started to look like lollipops, and the further inland from Lake Superior, the better. Another hiker told us that she was there just two days earlier, on Monday, and everything was basically green.”
At Gooseberry Falls State Park, also along the north shore, only a few trees were showing any color change. And, at Shovel Point at Tettegouche State Park, “the color really hadn’t made it’s way to the lake yet, but there was some signs of yellow.” He noted that as a first time visitor to Minnesota, he was impressed at how much the cliff side of the lake looked like the Northern California or Oregon coast.
Minnesota’s mountains only reach elevations of 2,266′. So, though hiking there is not likely to make you breathless, the autumn color certainly will.
Minnesota (2,266′) – Near Peak (50-75%) GO NOW!
Note: CaliforniaFallColor.com does not make it a practice to report on areas outside California, though we have occasionally published reports from New York, Idaho, Arizona, China, and – now – Minnesota. If in your travels, you capture beautiful scenes as Nick King did, here, please send them to editor@californiafallcolor.com. As, we enjoy seeing autumn beauty everywhere.
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Quaking aspen, Hope Valley (9/15/17) Phillip Reedy
With just four days to go before the Autumnal Equinox, anxious readers have been asking, “What’s happening!?” So, we reached out to our network of color spotters and received these reports.
Bishop Creek Canyon – Just Starting to Patchy – Jared Smith of the Parcher’s Resort says it’s been “very odd weather wise” all summer. He said unseasonably warm August temperatures have delayed the emergence of fall color high up in Bishop Creek Canyon, west of Bishop (Inyo County). However, Jared says, “there’s been a marked difference in the past four days, since we began waking up to frost on the ground.” Still, the aspen are “super spotty,” though changing rapidly. Jared plans to provide a more extended report this week. So, stay tuned.
For those of you who’ve never had the delight of staying at Parcher’s, it’s at 9,200′ in elevation and surrounded by great fly fishing and aspen forests. The resort has so few cabins that it’s often difficult getting one, but here’s an insider tip… reserve a cabin there anytime after Mule Days (a Bishop tradition over the Memorial Day Weekend) during the first two weeks of June and you’ll be treated to a beautiful, uncrowded time of year. The fishing is out of this world, as is the welcome by Parcher’s knowledgeable staff. And, you’ll be able to see the aspen dressed in their freshest green.
Quaking Aspen, Hope Valley (9/15/17) Phillip Reedy
Hope Valley – Just Starting – Phillip Reedy found these jewels carried downstream in the Hope Valley. Phil cautions that it’s still to early to see much color, but if you’ll be there, look down to find colorful harbingers of what’s coming.
North Coast – Just Starting – Max Forster reports that bigleaf maple are beginning their show of gold and bright yellow along spots along the Redwood Highway (US 101).
Mendocino County – Just Starting – Koleen Hamblin reports that autumn marks the arrival of Mendocino County’s coveted candy cap, chanterelle, porcini and hedgehog mushrooms. Mendocino County is a hotspot of mushroom hunting with 3,000 varieties sprouting there, 500 of which are edible. CLICK HERE for a link to fungi foraging sites, tours, walks, rides, botanical gardens and cooking classes… all happening in Mendocino County during autumn. This is such a fun fall outing, that we plan a followup report on it.
Colorado – Patchy – North Coast color spotter Walt Gabler said a mid September drive through Colorado found lots of patchy yellow in the aspen. What’s happening in the Rockies is what should be happening in the Sierra, were it not for the hot August we experienced.
Lassen Volcanic National Park – Just Starting – Darrell Sano found lots of still-green aspen along the road to Butte Lake inside Lassen Volcanic National Park. The same was happening in Chico and along state highways 36, 44, 89, 128, 299, as he criss-crossed northern California.
Weaverville – Just Starting – Darrell reports that this scenic and historic town survived this past summer’s wildfires, though stretches of twisted metal and the burnt out remains of homes and cars left by the fire provide a surrealistic landscape through which to pass. Weaverville’s bigleaf maple and black oak are still standing by the Trinity River, so the color should be dramatic against the ashen landscape.
Lake/Napa/Sonoma Vineyards – Just Starting – Darrell tasted a little wine country, returning via Clear Lake to Pope Valley, seeing the lushly green vines along highway 29 and the Silverado Trail loaded with fruit.
Berkeley Hills – Just Starting to Patchy – The exotics are speckled with saturated eye candy in the Berkeley Hills says SF Bay Area color spotter Darrell Sano. He sends these shots taken while wandering the Berkeley Hills, yesterday. Now, that’s a happy wanderer.
http://www.californiafallcolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/logo-1.png00John Poimiroohttp://www.californiafallcolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/logo-1.pngJohn Poimiroo2017-09-18 15:47:452020-11-04 10:12:17Here's What's Happening Around California
Marlette Mirror, Marlette Lake, NV (10/9/15) Dotty Molt
Color spotter Dotty Molt scores a rare First Report by taking the trail to Marlette Lake near Lake Tahoe.
Marlette Lake, North Canyon Road (10/9/15) Dotty Molt (10/9/15) Dotty Molt
Marlette Lake (10/9/15) Dotty Molt
She writes, “People seem to forget that we have fall color around Lake Tahoe.
“Marlette Lake can only be reached by hiking or mountain biking back 4.5 miles from Spooner Lake.
“It’s a moderate uphill, but a quick downhill, especially on a bike.
“Aspen line the trail all the way back to the Lake, and Marlette has beautiful stands of Aspen on the Southwestern shoreline.
“Beautiful colors are seen around 9 a.m. when the sun peeks over the ridge, illuminating the Aspen from behind.”
Dotty makes an important point… Consider the orientation of the fall color on the landscape in relationship to light.
That is: will it be best viewed in morning or afternoon? Will it be backlit or front lit? How have you set your camera for depth of field, motion or sharpness? Is there something to make the image extraordinary, such as a compositional element that would enhance the image (Dotty’s awareness of the sun star and mirror effect)? Finally, what post production work may be necessary to duplicate what you are seeing and feeling?
Peak GO NOW! – Marlette Lake
Autumn Abstract, Marlette Lake (10/9/15) Dotty Molt
Marlette Lake, North Canyon Rd (10/9/15) Dotty Molt
