Redwood Highway
Fall color is fleeting along the Redwood Highway, where color appears by specie of deciduous plant.
Presently, it’s almost Past Peak in Del Norte and northern Humboldt Counties, though, North Coast color spotter Max Forster reports, “you will find groves where individual bigleaf maple and patches of vine maple are still on full display.”
What affects the fall color is the proximity deciduous plants have to the redwoods. He observes, “Maple that catch more sun throughout the day peak earlier, while those that have survived primarily under the redwood canopy can peak much later in the season.
Deciduous plants to be seen along the Redwood Highway include: Bigleaf maple (yellow), Red alder (yellow), Gray Alder (yellow), Mountain alder (yellow), Bitter cherry (red/orange), Vine maple (chartreuse), Black cottonwood (gold), Oregon crab apple (orange/red) and Western poison oak (crimson). These often appear as glimpses of bright splashes of color within the evergreen redwood forest. rather than as bold swaths.
Patches of color are now being seen on the Howland Hill Road in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, along the Newton P Drury Scenic Parkway in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park and at Lost Man Creek in Redwood National Park.
One of the beautiful colors of the North Coast is brilliantly crimson Western poison oak, Toxicodendron diversilobum. Max says the poison oak is just beginning to peak and finds that similar to bigleaf maple, those “under the redwoods have another week or so” until peak.
- Del Norte County – Peak to Past Peak, YOU ALMOST MISSED IT.
- Redwood National Park, Orick – Peak to Past Peak, YOU ALMOST MISSED IT.
- Avenue of the Giants – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
- Humboldt Redwoods State Park – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
Singed Edges of Yosemite
This past summer’s Ferguson Fire singed the edges of Yosemite National Park and consumed 96,901 acres. It also was a human tragedy, killing two and injuring 19.
Color spotter Crys Black explored a large area of the Yosemite region, this past weekend to see how the fire affected the park experience.
She began at Mammoth Pool Reservoir, south of Bass Lake. The following day, she drove north along CA-41 through the southwest park entrance, past Wawona and Glacier Point before descending into Yosemite Valley, finally leaving by the Merced River Canyon, a route that took her through the center of the Ferguson complex.
Near Bass Lake, Crys reported spotty color, “around Nelder Creek and again near Mammoth Pool Reservoir and the San Joaquin River on Minarets Rd.”
“Sunset near Whiskey Falls at Cascade Woods was something else, especially spooky with fire-ravaged trees standing sentinel.”
She past severe fire damage along CA-41, 140, and the Glacier Rd., though remarked that, “even amongst the damage, new growth has already started in most places.”
Yosemite Valley was “as breathtaking as I’ve ever seen it,” staying so long that the light was too low to photograph the Merced River Canyon on her departure along CA-140 toward Mariposa, noting that the Yosemite View Lodge was “spared, yet again.”
Though she could not photograph the canyon, Crys reported that it should “remain colorful probably for another weekend if the weather is gentle, aside from the fire areas, all the way into Mariposa.”
- Southwest Entrance, Yosemite National Park – Peak to Past Peak, YOU ALMOST MISSED IT. – Spots of color are all that remain between Fish Camp and Tunnel View.
- Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW! – Black oak and cottonwood are at peak, bigleaf maple and dogwood are Past Peak.
- Merced River Canyon, CA-140 – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
California Wild Grape
A month ago, I reported about California wild grape, Vitis californica, growing near a dry creek in Cameron Park.
Since then, its grapes have withered, though its large, kidney-shaped leaves are now displaying from muted to intensely saturated color.
A climbing vine, this one has scaled Fremont cottonwoods, several stories high.
Dr. Eva Begley, author of Falcon Guides’ Plants of Northern California writes that, “if there’s nothing to climb, it spreads across the ground, where it can provide good erosion control.”
Its grape are now shriveled, though were plump and ripe, sweet to the taste, but seedy, a month ago. More of the red color is likely to develop this month. Look for them in riparian areas and canyons.
- California Wild Grape, Cameron Park – Near Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
It Hasta Be Shasta
For sheer drama posed beside fall color in early November, it has to be Shasta.
Color spotter Namita Mishra was there this past weekend and sent back photographs of black oak, Quercus kelloggii, laden with orange leaves near the end of peak.
This week is likely the last to see peak color around the City of Mt. Shasta. Check below for previous reports on peak color being seen from Mt. Shasta south to Redding.
- Mt. Shasta – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
Too Much Fall Color
Ryleigh Davalos, 15 mos., seems to have had her fill of fall color in this photo taken by her dad, Saturday, in downtown Los Altos.
C’mon Ryleigh we never get tired viewing fall color, especially in California’s urban forests.
In the South Bay and Peninsula villages of Los Gatos, Saratoga, Cupertino, Los Altos, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Menlo Atherton, Redwood City and Burlingame, landscaped trees are nearing peak, and the show is now more lively than a crib mobile.
Downtown Los Altos has one of the Bay Area’s best displays of Chinese pistache, Pistacia chinensis, which have a long, vibrant display of fluorescent color.
- Los Altos (157′) – Patchy to Near Peak (10-75%) GO NOW!
In Your Backyard – Eastern Sierra Fall Color
“In Your Backyard,” a feature of Fox26 in Fresno, sent Sports Anchor Nick King to search for autumn adventures. He found them in the Eastern Sierra, this past month.
Fall color is now Past Peak in most of the Eastern Sierra (pockets of it can still be found in the Owens Valley), though the perspectives stated in Nick’s piece are timeless.
Nick is a fan of CaliforniaFallColor.com, saying he turns to this site for guidance on where to find fall color.
In this segment, he leaned upon CFC color spotters Josh Wray, Jared Smith, Jeff Simpson and yours truly for comments on what makes fall so special in California.
The Longest Peak
When all other native trees are past peak, Black oak, Quercus kelloggii, hang in there.
Color spotter Clayton Peoples traveled to McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park on Saturday and was impressed by the fall color, which “was absolutely stunning. Although some of the black oak leaves have dried/browned a bit, others are still a vivid orange/yellow.
“Moreover,” he continued, “because autumn has been mild with few storms and little wind, trees are retaining their leaves quite well.”
He found that even “close to the falls, vegetation has begun to turn color, creating a colorful frame/backdrop for the falls. The same can be said for the creek, which is lined with a great variety of vegetation, all of which is sporting gorgeous fall color.”
That’s impressive, as Burney Falls is at elev. 2,783′ and yet elevations down to 100′ are nearing peak.
If you’re near Redding, Clayton encourages getting to Burney Falls now before storms arrive. As, the trip “is well worth it!”
- Burney Falls, McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park (2,783′) – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
The Color of Harvest
The color of harvest is many faceted.
At Oak Glen in the San Bernardino Mountains, it is as: garnet-red as an apple, carrot-colored as a pumpkin, sorrel-brown as a chestnut, flaxen as a dry stalk of corn and as dazzling as a California sunset.
Harvest and Autumn’s peak met this week at Oak Glen, where visitors gathered apples, corn, chestnuts and pumpkins for their holiday tables.
Southern California color spotter Alena Nicholas was there to share the color of harvest.
- Oak Glen (4,734′) – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
Avenue of the Giants
Avenue of the Giants (US 101) was in full color between Fortuna and Ukiah, as north coast color spotter Walt Gabler drove south, yesterday.
He found black oak at full peak north of Weott and along the Eel River, though was disappointed with color south of Garberville, finding the Van Duzen river east of Carlotta to be disappointing.
At his family’s homestead in the backwoods of Humboldt County, God’s rays through the fog of a North Coast sunrise illuminated the life-giving mist that sustains the redwood forest.
- Avenue of the Giants, Humboldt County (1,516′) – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
Peak of the Week: Chico
This is the week to visit Chico.
This forested college town in the northwest Sacramento Valley is one of California’s cities of trees.
Red maple, Acer rubrum, Bidwell Park, Chico (11/3/18) Laura Jean[/caption]The best places to be immersed in Chico’s fall color are downtown and along the Esplanade (a boulevard north of Chico State University that is lined with landmark plane trees, oaks and elm), in Downtown Chico whose streets are shaded with big trees and in Bidwell Park, the third largest municipal park in California (3,670 acres).
Within the park, best bets for fall color are: Sycamore Pond, Cedar Grove (home to the second tree experimentation farm in the U.S., where California pioneer John Bidwell planted trees from around the world), the Hooker Oak (now dead, though a massive Valley oak when living that was found to be two oaks that had grown together) and the Chico Creek Nature Center’s native plant garden.
- Chico (132′) – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!