Tag Archives: eastern

2022 Fall Color

Image September 17, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

It is that time of year again — my favorite season! This past week on walks here in the San Francisco Bay Are I have noticed the signs of the seasonal change. The sun is setting an hour earlier, our first (early!) Pacific weather front is arriving this weekend, some trees are starting to change colors, and the sound of old leaves skittering along the ground in the breeze is everywhere.

Autumn Aspens, Lake, Wildfire Smoke — Wildfire smoke drifts over the Sierra Nevada crest above a lake surrounded by autumn aspens. @ Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

Fall color is more prevalent here in California than many realize. The earliest hints come to the high country of the Sierra Nevada in late August, when something in the air changes, corn lily plants turn yellow, the bilberry starts to pick up a bit of red, and you might even find an odd yellow aspen leaf here and there. Things pick up as we progress through September, and by the very end of the month it is often possible to start finding a few examples of good aspen color up high. Then the color works its way down to lower country, the valleys, and the coast over the following months. I’ve sometimes photographed “fall color” in the Central Valley as late as… January!

The main aspen color season in the Sierra peaks during the first half of October. It tends to start at higher elevations as early as the very end of September, becoming quite pronounced early in October, and working down to lower elevations into the third week of the month. If you can only go once, targeting your visit for about one week into the month is a good plan.

No one knows for sure how the season will evolve. Some things stay relatively constant from year to year, while others vary quite a bit based on temperature fluctuations, the amount of precipitation that fell during the year, whether or not early storms sweep through, and more.

I share annual updates on my Sierra Nevada Fall Color page at this website. I just posted this years first message there today — it is mostly some early thinking about how the season may evolve, along with a record of what has happened in some previous seasons. The latter may be useful as you plan your autumn color search in California.

One more thing: I may have something new to write about regarding fall color in a few weeks. Stay tuned…

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Timberline Meadow

Image September 15, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A timberline meadow with small trees is bounded by a granite bench.

I recall the time, quite a few years ago, when I first understood that the places in the natural world (and the human world, for that matter) that we identify with are not necessarily the most iconic, biggest, most classically impressive places. I was at the end of a moderately short backpacking loop out of Tuolumne meadows, within perhaps little more than an hour of the trailhead. It was a day of potential rain, and that potentiality became reality at this point. I stopped, put on rain gear and covered my pack, stepped off the trail, sat down, and leaned against a rock to watch the rain approach. Decades later I still remember that rock and consider it a thing worth visiting — although I’m sure that no one else would even notice it.

I passed by the spot in this photograph a couple of times during our August backcountry photography visit to the Eastern Sierra. There are, I’m certain, thousands of similar little meadows throughout the Sierra — most from a stream meandering through, green with meadow grasses, bounded by granite and small trees. But somehow this particular spot caught my attention and, I think, may have become one of “those places.”

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Mist in the Trees

Image August 27, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Mist drifts among Eastern Sierra trees as a summer storm clears.

One this evening the storm finally cleared. Over the course of an hour or two the higher clouds thinned, and some promising light began to glow high above. I watched from an elevated rocky position as peaks began to appear intermittently and clouds of fog flowed back and forth across the landscape.

The fog seemed to be the result of the abundant atmospheric moisture from the rains of the past two days. At times it almost obscured all of the landscape that was above my position, but soon a breeze would push it this way and that, and trees and rocks and ridges were revealed. I was especially interested in mist drifting among trees just above me, and I photographed this bit of forest as the fog begin to thin again.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Clearing Storm, Evening

Image August 18, 2022 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Our backcountry stay began with the absolute worst summer Sierra storm I can remember. Within seconds of getting our tent up the skies let loose with an hours-long barrage of extremely heavy rain, hail, thunder, lightning, and wind. Everything around us flooded, and we had a stream flowing under the tent. There was nothing to do but shelter in the tent and try to stay dry and warm. We managed to escape briefly to eat a quick dinner, but the rain continued. It paused later that night… and then resumed before dawn and continued through most of the next day, albeit not as heavily.

Finally, late on day two, the storm broke. We began to see some thinning in the clouds to the west, and we began to hope for some interesting sunset light. Out we went, with each of us making guesses as to when and where the light might appear. At first I photographed the fog that was drifting back and forth among the surrounding peak, and then I began to turn my attention to the west, where I hoped to get some sunset color. Not much was happening there… and then I looked behind me to see see this scene developing!

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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: eastern

2022 Fall Color

Timberline Meadow

Mist in the Trees

Clearing Storm, Evening

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.