I visited a few locations in the Mammoth-to-Bishop area today, and can add a bit of information to the general knowledge floating around on the net. I can’t speak about the whole Sierra, obviously, but some of what I saw today might give an indication of how things are evolving.
As a point of comparison, when I was in the area last week (the first weekend of October) the colors were tremendous at some of the popular, higher elevation areas around and a bit north of Bishop. In fact, the colors then were as good as I’ve ever seen. This was enhanced by the light rain and the overcast, both of which intensify the colors and reveal more subtle details.
Between then and now the Sierra had some serious early season snow and, at the lower elevations, rain. Partly due to this weather and partly to the normal progression of color, this week those higher areas have many leafless or nearly leafless trees – the colors there have pretty much run their course. The colors have moved down a bit in elevation, but have not yet caught up to what they were before. You can find good colors now, but you have to look a bit harder.
The good news is that there are a lot of very green trees in many of the middle and low elevation areas. This bodes well for the color prospects in the next couple of weeks.
I really prefer to photograph aspens in overcast conditions with subdued light. In fact, when it is clear I’ll often photograph the trees before the light is on them or wait until the evening and photograph them after the shadows from higher peaks move across the groves. This weekend, however, it is bright and sunny. On all counts except for aspen photography, it is beautiful weather! Today there were two somewhat special conditions. First, there is significant snow on the higher peak, and especially on the White Mountains across Owens Valley to the east. And this morning there was a fair amount of fog in the valley areas. In fact, this seemed so interesting that I chose to shoot these conditions out in Owens Valley this morning rather than chasing aspens!
Well it was a pleasant surprise to run into you too! Hope we get to talk longer next time.
Michael, it was a very pleasant surprise to run into you and Claudia way back in the upper reaches of Lundy Canyon. Hope you found something interesting there!
Dan
Great report Dan. This mirrors my experience this past week (10/3-10/7). Colors were really strong in the upper elevations around North Lake and the upper portion of Bishop Creek south fork. I also prefer the overcast days and the snow this last week really made for some wonderful images. It does seem odd that with the colder temps places like June Lake still have so much green. Very strange year indeed for the fall color.
Yes, Michael, this season seems to be following a pattern of wild color up high early, a dip in the color as the storm took out the higher elevation color and the middle elevations didn’t come in quite as brightly, and (we hope!) some good colors still to come as those larger and lower trees that are currently green change colors.
I actually ended up doing less fall color shooting than I anticipated – on both mornings I instead headed out into Owens Valley just south of Mammoth. Yesterday there was wonderful fog that made for a number of interesting shooting possibilities. This morning was more of a typical blue-sky morning, but still interesting at dawn. Later I visited Convict Lake (not inspiring for aspens, though I found one small grove a bit lower than the lake that had possibilities), and then did the June Lake loop. There are some good colors in some places there, but it still seems a bit early for the most part. I just drove up the Parker trailhead on the way to Lee Vining (where I’m having coffee and typing this!) and it looks like one could hike to some color a ways up the trail.
I’m going to scout a few of the lower side canyons north of Lee Vining later today, perhaps shoot a bit on the road to Virginia Lake (there is a grove I know that has potential even when it looks poor elsewhere), and maybe head out toward Dunderberg Meadow. If things are not quite what I’m hoping for, I may head up Tioga and shoot a bit in the park in late light as I head back to the Bay Area. There is a grove a trees that is open to the western light that I’ve been thinking about shooting.
Good luck with your quest!
Dan
Thanks for the report Dan. We arrived in Bishop this afternoon, and my take is similar to yours. I’m not as familiar with the Bishop Creek area as you are, but there is a lot of green, actually dark green, especially in the canyon below South Lake, but even around North Lake there are patches of lime green, along with the bare trees you mentioned. And there’s a lot of green further north too in Lee Vining Canyon and around Convict Lake. It seems to me that the medium to low elevations are turning quite late — I can’t remember seeing so much dark green before in the second week of October.