Picture of the week

Brilliant Orange

A colorful aspen up on the road to Virgina Lakes along the ridge of Conway Summit.  The trees in this area are just entering their prime colors now. I passed through this region last week as part of a 3 day, 850 mile whirlwind motorcycle trip through the Sierras from Sacramento up to Nevada City and on through Downieville, Quincy, and some backroads to Lake Oroville to the north. Then passing through Truckee, Tahoe, the Mono basin, and the June Lakes in the south, finally hitting Tuolumne Meadows of Yosemite for the second night, and then returning into the central valley via Sonora Pass. 

Fall colors this year in the Sierra Nevadas are more elusive.  Due to the severe drought the area has endured, only the aspen close to the stream beds or otherwise  had some consistent water source have faired okay.  The Tahoe basin and Hope Valley have not done so well this year, as most looked like their leaves have gone from green straight to brown, with many already shed to the ground.  Lake Tahoe has dropped below the rim of the outlet for the Truckee River, so its flow is currently stopped, along with the prospects for fall colors along this scenic river.  Also the popular Taylor Creek from Fallen Leaf lake that feeds into Lake Tahoe at the southern end is at a virtual trickle, not being enough to enable the fall run of the kokanee salmon and the dependent bear population that feed upon them. The aspen in the area have already expired, not getting enough water to keep their leaves on.  Up on Monitor Pass the colors are a little better, with many still on the brownish side.  The recent fire the closed down this pass in July further down on the west side and up to Ebetts pass has tended to put the kabosh on the area in general. 

There appears to be more promise for the fall colors further to the south past Bridgeport.  In Lundy Canyon at the northwest corner of the Mono basin and the June Lakes area to the south, the trees look healthier, but still green.  It appears that due to the mild temperatures so far, the color situation is more delayed. I would expect these trees to start going yellow in the first or second week of October, while the trees on Conway Summit have already started to turn color due to their higher elevation.  Likewise up on Sonora Pass via Highway 108 the colors of the aspen near the top on the western slope tend to be pretty good right now.

Strawberry Valley fire services	Emerald Bay	Top of Monitor Pass
Electric aspen	Layers of color	Aspen backlighting
Virginia Lake colors	Tucker and the fall colors	Saddlebag lake
Lempert Dome	Granite erratic	Open meadow on Tioga Pass

All content and images are property of Stephen Fischer Photography, copyright 2010-2015.  Last updated: 10/4/2015   ()