Category Archives: Sierra Nevada Fall Color

Locations, timing, advice on photographing Sierra Nevada fall color

Locations, Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Sierra Nevada Fall Color

Sierra Fall Color — Late September 2015

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I’ve just returned from my first trip of the season to photograph Sierra Nevada fall color, and I have a few impressions and observations to share.

Autumn Aspens, Eastern Sierra Gully
A “river” of aspen trees in autumn colors snakes its way up an eastern Sierra Nevada gully

Autumn Aspens, Eastern Sierra Gully. Sierra Nevada, California. September 26, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

In a typical year the peak of the Sierra Nevada aspen color generally occurs around the first two to three weeks of October, so I would not usually head up there to photograph the fall color in September. But this is not a typical year. After four years of historic drought conditions in the Sierra, the normal seasonal cycles seem to have been disrupted. With that in mind I felt it might be worthwhile to go a bit early this year, and my visit was rewarded with some excellent early color.

Some Speculation

Every season brings reports that “the color is coming early this year!” Eventually I figured out that this is quite often a matter of folks becoming overly exuberant when they see the first early signs of the color change, and that things tend to play out on roughly the same schedule almost every year. There are variations, but they are most often rather small.

This year I’m prepared to go (a little ways) out on a limb and say that things do seem to be different this time, though I’m a bit cautious about overdoing the extent of the difference. The photograph at the beginning of this article embodies features of the pattern that I believe I am seeing. Notice some trees without any leaves at all, some trees that already have intense color, and some trees that are still quite green.

Here is my sense of what is going on. Note that this is essentially personal speculation and guesswork based on what I see, and that I can’t guarantee that I’m right or that things will play out as I imagine they might. That said, I’m planning my own eastern Sierra aspen hunting around these assumptions until I see evidence to the contrary.  Continue reading Sierra Fall Color — Late September 2015 →

Commentary, Locations, Sierra Nevada Fall Color

Sierra Nevada Aspen Hunting and the Weather

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Something to think about for photographers headed to the eastern Sierra to photograph aspen color next week: The seven-day Yosemite to Kings Canyon weather forecast is calling for snow (!) on Wednesday and Thursday, and things don’t look like they’ll totally clear out on Friday. This has some ramifications:

  • Those of us who get to the eastern Sierra by way of one of the trans-Sierra passes may encounter difficulties if the forecast pans out. I would not be at all surprised to see a temporary closure of Tioga Pass Road (highway 120) though Yosemite, and other passes to the north could be affected. This makes for a very long drive for those of us in the SF Bay area!
  • A storm can affect the aspen color display. A cold snap can, or so many of us believe, encourage the colors to change. But wind can also bring down many of the leaves in a hurry. (I once arrived before dawn at North Lake to see – just barely – incredible color conditions in the grove the runs up the hillside on the far side of the lake. Moments later a snow squall blew in, and as the wind began to blow I retreated to my car for a half hour. When it passed, half of the leaves had blown down!
  • On the plus side, an early winter storm can bring some opportunities and advantages as well. Overcast and rainy/snowy weather can intensify the colors and create some very compelling and moody scenes. New snow adds something special to the scene, whether only on the higher peaks above or down among the trees.

It could get interesting, so check those weather forecasts and the road conditions on the mountain highways. Fall in the Sierra is a time of change in many ways. Pacific winter-type weather systems start to move through, and they can range from very mild to virtually full-blown winter storms. While most of them pass quickly, some can last for a few days and close passes. It would be very unusual for such an early October storm to actually mark the beginning of the winter road closures, but mid-October storms have done so in the past.

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Events, Locations, Sierra Nevada Fall Color

Searching for Aspen Color in the Eastern Sierra Nevada – The Show Starts Soon!

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At about this time each year my thoughts turn to the phenomenal aspen color in the eastern Sierra. I seek out and photograph these trees every fall. I shared some hints in a couple of blog articles from recent seasons – links below:

Each season is unique – starting at different times and developing in various ways that seem to depend upon how the previous winter-summer weather evolved, elevation, north/south position with the range, and other imponderables that seem beyond prediction.

While many signs of the seasonal change are already visible, the real show typically begins at the very end of September in a few places and really gets going around the beginning of October. I tend to regard the first half of the month as being “prime time” for eastern Sierra aspen color, though the season can end earlier if the weather blows down a lot of leaves or a cold snap turns them brown, or it can last longer for those who follow the color transition all the way down into Owens Valley and other low areas. (Note: While there are some colorful trees west of the Sierra crest, they are not nearly as numerous or accessible as those on the east side.)

(Feel free to share!)

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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Locations, Sierra Nevada Fall Color

Photographing Eastern Sierra Aspens – A Few More Thoughts

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Aspen color season is now underway in the eastern Sierra Nevada mountain range of California – or at least that’s what I hear. I haven’t been over the crest quite yet to see for myself, but others are writing about it and posting photographs, and my previous experience tells me that now is the time. I wrote extensively about this last year (see the article here) so I’ll try to keep this somewhat short, and mainly focus on some ideas about how to approach the whole process if you are planning to photograph the aspens this year.

Photographers who haven’t photographed the Sierra Nevada fall aspen color often have a series of questions – some of which I’ll answer directly and some of which I’ll be cagy about.

When do the trees change colors?

In my experience the first hints of change can may be seen in late September, though I’ve seen a few odd trees here and there get some color as early as the middle of the month. The core of the real “show” tends to be roughly around the first week of October, extending from a bit earlier than that until perhaps mid-October. You can perhaps find a few trees after that at lower elevations and in sheltered areas, but not many. (In a reply found below, Michael Frye says that he finds his best aspens a bit later than this. He knows what he is talking about!)

As I write this near the end of September, 2010… the change is underway. I’ll be going very soon. But before I do…  Continue reading Photographing Eastern Sierra Aspens – A Few More Thoughts →