Fall Colors 2017

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maverick
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Fall Colors 2017

Post by maverick »

Starting to show in some locations: http://www.californiafallcolor.com/2017/09/
Professional Sierra Landscape Photographer

I don't give out specific route information, my belief is that it takes away from the whole adventure spirit of a trip, if you need every inch planned out, you'll have to get that from someone else.

Have a safer backcountry experience by using the HST ReConn Form 2.0, named after Larry Conn, a HST member: http://reconn.org
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austex
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Re: Fall Colors 2017

Post by austex »

Was at Saddlebag area and Virginia Lakes all last week. Lee Vining Creek low of 26 and Sonora JCT/Pickle had a low of 24 Sat so ought to be booming soon!
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Re: Fall Colors 2017

Post by SSSdave »

Fall quaking aspen leaf season has been late along the Eastern Sierra. But is already spectacular in a very few favored spots. Good hunting. This fire on the mountains was last Friday in the Bishop Creek drainage:

Image

I did a 3 day fishing trip with a bro at Bishop Creek and was not expecting much color per reports and that was the case. On September 28:

This is the most unusual early fall leaf season I've seen with considerable delay from normal years in some spots. What I could see along US395 looked green to lime green to early yellow and unsynchronized versus normal years. Mount Wood for instance was mostly green and lime green with some yellow and just one small orange patch. Normally the top part of that grove starts off orange by time other sections show yellow but this fall there is a lot of green at top while other lower areas are yellow. Note besides the wet winter with a record summer snow pack there were also considerable periods of thunderstorm weather that kept talus slope groves that tend to be dry by mid summer wet.

Bishop Creek area lower groves are all still mostly green. Generally upper groves above 10k are no more advanced than areas at 9k and that is abnormal. Generally appears mediocre synchronization of tree color versus better years.

The upper areas of South Fork of Bishop Creek, color was mostly green, lime green, yellow, with some areas of spotted black dull yellow green leaves no doubt a result of the September 20 snow storm. There was nice orange color a bit below the Table Mountain Group Camp. Below Parchers, nicely red creek dogwood while black cottonwood are just green.

Middle Fork of Bishop Creek, green at Aspendell but talus groves just above near peak. From Sabrina Campground to weir pond groves near creek mostly green, lime green, some yellow while scrubby talus groves above highway at peak. High talus groves northwest of Sabrina boring yellow, some green. Groves southeast of Sabrina mostly yellow or lime green and not very aesthetic compared to good years.

North Lake green or lime green, little yellow. Looks to be maybe 2 weeks away from anything interesting if that occurs at all. Note one cannot see without hiking, the considerable groves below the south side of Piute Crags.
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Also after returning from my Humphreys Basin backpack on September 8, I spent 2 weeks catching up with the below considerable photography processing and then coding HTML for such on my 2017 Trip Chronicles feature. Thus just added pages 14 through 19 covering the below on link below:

Lake Aloha backpack 7/22-28
Laurel Creek backpack 8/2-8
Oregon eclipse road trip 8/17-21
Humphreys Basin backpack 8/29-9/6
20 Lakes Basin day hike 9/7
Bishop Creek fishing trip 9/28-29


http://www.davidsenesac.com/2017_Trip_C ... les-0.html

David
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ironmike
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Re: Fall Colors 2017

Post by ironmike »

Was at Aspendell, Sabrina, and North Lk yesterday 10/2. Color has advanced noticeably particularly at Aspendell/Cardinal Resort where orange/red components are strong. From the highway, McGee Creek also looked to be near peak.
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Re: Fall Colors 2017

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The storm forecast a week ago is now moving into Crescent City and will be over the Tahoe region by midnight where a half foot of snow is possible on the peaks and some at highway pass levels down to 6k. Since my fishing trip 3 weeks ago have been wondering if I would get back over to the Eastern Sierra while aspen leaves were still in fall color.

The unsynchronized grove leaf change this fall with mediocre images on the report sites left me uninterested. More importantly the huge fires up in Napa and Sonoma left me not wanting to do any field work while those people up there were suffering despite the fact the smoke was not blowing over the Sierra. Additionally with the length of day rapidly decreased and outdoors much chillier each day, it is more difficult to do much of anything outside. But now with that winding down and this storm moving in am trying to motivate myself to pack gear up today and get on the road. There are some exceptional lower elevation aspen areas along streams that not many photographers ever bother with because they are not easily visible from road areas and require awkward efforts to get into. Uncertain what I am going to find so this is all a gamble. There is one obscure location with trees with exceptional varieties of leaf colors I am most interested in finding good conditions at and if so that alone will make the trip a success regardless of everything else.

One thing that will occur in some areas is the storm is supposed to be rather windy that is sure to blow off a lot of fresh brightly colored leaves onto the ground. For leaf close-ups one needs to find subjects within a day or two of leaves leaving trees because they quickly lose color going brown and black. One of my favorite places for fallen leaves is along streams where they can become colorful floating mats behind blockage.

Windytv is showing Friday to be windy all day with the quick moving front cloud deck to be beyond Mono Lake by late morning Friday leaving sunny blue skies though breezy. Thus there will a short period Friday morning with diffuse cloud light conditions that is necessary for more jungly stream areas. Areas above 7k could have some snow on the ground that always adds interest as long as it is early or cloudy. Fresh leaves atop fresh snow while in shade or with diffuse cloud light can offer some terrific subjects. Definitely will be bringing my winter ski clothing, snow boots, and gaiters. More interesting is Saturday and Sunday though sunny, shows exceptionally light winds.

David
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Re: Fall Colors 2017

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http://www.davidsenesac.com/2017_Trip_C ... 3x1vsl.jpg
(Annoyingly with current forum software, will need to right mouse select link then in pop down open link in new window.)

Image


Indeed Friday October 20 drove up to Hope Valley in Toiyabe National Forest after a Friday wee hours storm left several inches of fresh snow. That is usually one of the last of our quaking aspen areas where fall leaf color change occurs. Thus spent a few hours working close-up images of aspen leaves atop fresh snow, a wonderously colorful yellow, orange, and white, candy cane world. More images and the story on the below link to Page 20 of my 2017 Trip Chronicles feature. On the drive home at lower elevations noted black oak, Pacific dogwood, bigleaf maple, and wild grape are near peak.

http://www.davidsenesac.com/2017_Trip_C ... 17-20.html
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