Dan's Outside

SFGate Report on Sierra Fall Colors (but a bit too late)

From SFGate:

NOTEBOOK / Fall colors arrive early in the Eastern Sierra. A brilliant show of fall color has started early this year across much of California. The best colors so far are at Convict Lake, set at 7,583 feet in the Eastern Sierra near Mammoth Lakes. This gorgeous lake is edged by a sloping mountain landscape carpeted…
By Tom Stienstra. [SFGate: Tom Stienstra]

The fact of the matter is that the fall aspen colors are pretty much over in the eastern Sierra. I was there during both of the previous weekends – while I could find some good colors this past Saturday and Sunday, groves that had lost their leaves and/or turned brown and black were much more common. The few groves that still showed color (such as some in Lee Vining Canyon, McGee Creek, and lower Rock Creek) are very near the end of their cycle for this year.

I’m not an expert, but it seems to me that the combination of a very dry season this past year and early storms this fall pushed up the peak of the aspen season by a week or so.

October 9, 2007 - Posted by gdanmitchell | Sierra Nevada