gdanmitchell wrote:
.....Overall, the highest elevation trees in various locations are spent - many bare trees, with only a few leaves left, and some of them are brown or even black. Middle-elevation trees are in great shape in many places, though you'll find a mixture of very colorful trees and some that have lost most or all of their leaves. In many places, best bets for color are the mid elevation to lower elevation groves. Many of them are now producing brilliant color, though they are not spent yet, and there are still green trees about.....
So, what elevation category does the Parchers Resort fall into? Mid elevation? I'll be there tomorrow thru Thursday.
Dang Olympus delayed shipment of the E-M1 though, I'm bummed about that. Oh well...
kurt765 wrote:
I wonder what will be left next weekend, if anything.
There will be cottonwood color, for sure, to the east of the range in Owens Valley and other east side valleys. There were still some green aspens this past weekend, so you should still be able to find some aspen color if you search around a bit.
Visited Eastern Sierras this weekend (Oct 12-13). North Lake and Lake Sabrina well past its prime time. Lake Sabrina is almost empty. Still some snow left from the mid week storm. Nice yellow colors below Aspendale in Bishop Creek.
Went to June Lake Loop yesterday, there are still some groves that have colors but those near June Lake and Gull Lake are past prime. The one that seem to still have a lot of color is the grove to the left of loop as you leave Silver Lake towards 395.
Lundy Lake has some colors left but this will be the first to third set of groves to the left before you see the actual lake. I shot in the afternoon so the back kit leaves helped. The groves closest to the lake are past prime and leaves are gone.
Conway Summit shooting from 395 is almost all spent. I didn't go to Virginia Lake anymore.
I went over Carson Pass on 88 to Hope Valley yesterday. I don't believe I saw any green Aspens at all. They are all either yellow or stripped, and it was blowing pretty hard late yesterday afternoon so I suspect more will be stripped this morning.
Heading out to the Sorensen's area in a few minutes (currently staying in South Lake Tahoe), hopefully to find some that aren't over ripe.
Bishop including the camps leading to Parcher's Resort is past prime and a lot have been stripped. A few patches remain alongside the mountain top. IMHO, it isn't worth the trip especially if you're driving quite a distance to capture these.
I was able to take some photos of aspens past their prime but with snow on the ground in the Mountain Glen campground.
There are trees in Immediate vicinity of downtown Bishop but that's about it.
Yesterday I was up on Monitor Pass (mostly stripped, but some nice trees left). I have a small 4WD vehicle so took off on some of the side roads. On one of them that was particularly gnarly, I was in 4WD low range moving along at about 2.5MPH and came around a corner where the road crossed a small meadow, and a black bear came busting out of the forest at full gallop about 30 yards in front of me. He ran into the forest on the other side of me, but I decided at that point to go back down the trail to 89. I didn't feel good about being out of the truck setting up for a photo with bears so close by.
I'm sure I scared him more than he scared me. He was beautiful though, jet black coat so glossy it shined in the afternoon sunlight.
If I head to June Lake coming weekend..do I have any chance of seeing colors or is it going to be past peak?
Appreciate any reports from June Lake here..
kovairaja99 wrote:
If I head to June Lake coming weekend..do I have any chance of seeing colors or is it going to be past peak?
Appreciate any reports from June Lake here..
Since the weather is remaining nice, you might still find some aspen color if you look around in low elevation areas near the base of the range and perhaps in some canyons. But most of it will be past prime.
However... cottonwood trees and others in the lowland valleys should be looking pretty nice, and there are other attractions in the eastern Sierra besides just the aspen color.
A friend of mine who frequently shoots and leads workshops in places including the eastern Sierra swears that the third week of October is often a great time to photograph the low elevation aspens, which he likes because these trees tend to be larger. We'll see how this works out in this year of early color change.
Taken a few thousand feet down the hill on S. Lake Road, not sure what elevation but just up the hill from the Creekside RV park...
(Nikon D5200, Nikon 70-200 VR mk1)
To respond to what others have mentioned and/or asked, I would say that it is worth a few hours drive in the next few days if you have already been planning on going, but for me it was an ~8 hr drive counting a 2 hr stop at Mountain Light and Whiskey Creek, and that was pretty rough for just two nights. I really needed it though, I've been cooped up in suburbia for far too long and the modest fall color was still a shot of inspiration and happiness for me. :-)
Thank you Dan! I visited June Lake loop last weekend. Colors were in full peak. Especially around Silver Lake area. Colors in Convict lake was at peak as well. I am not sure if the colors would last another week..
gdanmitchell wrote:
Since the weather is remaining nice, you might still find some aspen color if you look around in low elevation areas near the base of the range and perhaps in some canyons. But most of it will be past prime.
However... cottonwood trees and others in the lowland valleys should be looking pretty nice, and there are other attractions in the eastern Sierra besides just the aspen color.
A friend of mine who frequently shoots and leads workshops in places including the eastern Sierra swears that the third week of October is often a great time to photograph the low elevation aspens, which he likes because these trees tend to be larger. We'll see how this works out in this year of early color change.
kovairaja99 wrote:
Thank you Dan! I visited June Lake loop last weekend. Colors were in full peak. Especially around Silver Lake area. Colors in Convict lake was at peak as well. I am not sure if the colors would last another week..
Glad to hear you got there while the colors were still great!
It was an "interesting" color season - not that it is completely over yet. Perhaps due to the unusual climate conditions of the past two years, with drought in California, the colors started earlier than usual. It wasn't just the aspens that were affected. I saw other hints of an early autumn in the Sierra as early as the beginning of August, when I noticed that plants such as the corn lilies were going dormant earlier than usual, and again in mid-September when I started to see red bilberry and yellow willow at high elevations.
And the aspen color did seem to change a bit earlier again (as it did last year) at the higher elevations, and it also seemed to work its way down to the lower elevations much more quickly.
Perhaps surprisingly for those of us who wondered if the drought would affect not only the timing but also the intensity of the color, in the end there were lots of stunning aspen colors. Though I did not photograph there a lot, the colors of the June Lake loop were about as spectacular as I've seen them. Many of the smaller groves in other areas, especially in what might be called high desert terrain, were very beautiful this year.
We were able to spend three days visiting the East Side, using our popup camper. We met up with a group of other popup owners, and did some touring as a group.
