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You've got a few up-to-date report sites in the previous post, so I won't say too much more about that. (Parcher's focuses in a somewhat different area, in the Bishop Creek drainage above the town of Bishop on the east side — a great place to go.)
Generally, in a typical year (whatever that is!) the best color usually arrives in the first week or so of October, starting at higher elevations, where there is already some color, and working its way down to Owens Valley and other lower areas on the east side at the base of the Sierra. This process lasts until the middle of October and if you look around you can often find some good color even in the third week of the month.
Everyone is speculating about how this year will evolve, given that the trees are stressed at the end of a season that is the third of three very dry seasons in a row. During the past two years, during both of which I shot extensively, it seemed to me like the color change happened a bit earlier than in the past. For example, two years ago I found good color only a day or two into the month of October and I shot successfully in the Bishop Creek drainage.
From my visits to the Sierra in September and judging from what I'm hearing elsewhere, there have been a few surprisingly early examples of color — not broad changes that turn whole hillsides brilliant colors, but some trees in some groves that seem to be starting early. Other signs of the autumn change — red bilberry, yellow leaves on willows, corn lilies falling over and turning brown — also seem to me to be on a bit of an early schedule. I saw a few scattered groves that looked like they were very stressed from the drought and which appeared to be going straight to brown — not many, but I saw them.
However, in a number of years of shooting eastern Sierra aspen color and trying to predict how the season would evolve, I've learned one thing... accurate predictions are tough, going on impossible. Things can change in unique ways each season and even in different locations, depending on early season storms. temperature trends, and more. I've seen early color knocked out by early storms, only to have the lower elevation trees turn soon after and put on a brilliant show.
My experience with Tahoe is very limited. I know Hope Valley very well, and in a usual year it would still be early by a week and a half of so. (Also, west over Carson Pass there are often some good displays.) I don't usually look for a lot of aspens in Markleeville, though you can find some heading down the highway from Carson Pass (some great ones near Sorensen's for example) and then going up over Monitor Pass toward highway 395. There are extensive and very beautiful groves on that pass. They can change a bit earlier, perhaps since they are high and exposed, and some of them are open to western light, which is a bit unusual in the eastern Sierra.
HIghway 49 is in the low Sierra, in the foothills essentially. Color there is going to come a bit later — second half of October to early November, depending.
If you are new to this, you might want to check out a few popular areas — the June Lake area north of Mammoth Lakes and the Bishop Creek area up the hill from the town of Bishop.
Dan
UPDATE: I've just seen photos from the past couple of days from the upper Bishop Creek area, and it looks like things are coming along quite early. If the photos are to be believed, there is already pretty decent color.
(I've written quite a bit about the eastern Sierra aspens. A good place to start is here: http://www.gdanmitchell.com/2009/09/02/sierra-nevada-fall-color-season-coming-sooner-than-you-think)
http://gdanmitchell.com/gallery/d/5870-2/AspenThicketBishopCreek20111015.jpg
Edited on Sep 20, 2014 at 12:11 AM · View previous versions
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