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

Tall Aspen Trees, Autumn

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Tall Aspen Trees, Autumn
A grove of tall aspen trees at peak autumn color, Eastern Sierra Nevada

Tall Aspen Trees, Autumn. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. October 9, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A grove of tall aspen trees at peak autumn color, Eastern Sierra Nevada

“The color isn’t very good this year,” someone said. “The color is changing late,” said someone else. “It changed to early,” said another. “The trees are still all green,” according to one observer. “Too many trees are bare already,” lamented one photographer. “The early snow turned lots of leaves black,” someone wrote. “It isn’t as good as it used to be,” reported another. After watching quite a few fall color seasons in the Sierra, I have observed that seasons do seem to have a bit of a personality. I’ve also heard (and spoken!) some generalizations about the development of color every year. It finally occurred to me this season that I often hear some variation on the same comments almost every season! Someone reports early color — or that it isn’t starting on schedule. Someone reports that the colors are better — or worse — that usual. But, aside from some differences likely attributable to weather variations, both long-term and short-term, over time things do seem to play out it fairly similar ways each year.

This year I spent — so far — about six days in the Sierra during fall color season. I feel like I pretty much hit the peak color over the past few days, with good color remaining at higher elevations and starting at the lower levels. If you haven’t gone yet and can get away in the next few days, I’m confident that you’ll be able to find some great eastern Sierra color, too. You will find a few groves have lost their leaves, but you’ll also find some in peak condition and probably even a few trees that are still green. I made this photograph on a very cold autumn morning — made a bit colder due to a miscalculation on an ice-coated rock while trying to cross a stream! — in a location where the morning sun had not yet cleared the top of a nearby tall ridge. The trees were picking up some soft reflected light that opened up the shadows and revealed details and colors that would not be a visible later on when the trees were in full sun.

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 and Amazon.
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Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Autumn Color Transition

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Autumn Color Transition
Brush and aspens undergoing the autumn color transition in the eastern Sierra Nevada

Autumn Color Transition. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. October 4, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Brush and aspens undergoing the autumn color transition in the eastern Sierra Nevada

When we think of fall color in the Sierra Nevada, for many the first (and perhaps only?) thoughts are of the aspens. The aspens are beautiful — more about them in a moment — but they aren’t the whole show. For example, where the high desert environment meets the mountain environment there can be a lot of spectacularly colorful brush, and the dried grasses contribute their own golden brown tones. Willows can become quite yellow, and even some ferns can glow in the right light. I suppose that this photograph is largely about aspens, but it chose to include some of those other color sources, too.

The aspen color transition is not a sudden thing. In fact, if you start with the earliest oddball individual yellow leaves, often seen by mid September and sometimes earlier, and look all the way out until late October when the last leaves finally fall, you can be looking at a period of as long as six weeks. (To be clear, the core of the season is still the first half of October plus a little.) Even in individual locations the color rarely changes all at once, and brilliantly colorful trees may stand next to trees that are still green. This location along the eastern base of the range is a fine example. Obviously some of the trees are approaching peak color. But if you look closely you may spot a few trees that are already bare. And the great or almost-entirely green trees area still several days to a week before their best color.

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

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

Aspens, Early Evening

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Aspens, Early Evening
Early evening light slants across eastern Sierra Nevada foothills and aspen groves beneath snow-covered peaks

Aspens, Early Evening. October 4, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early evening light slants across eastern Sierra Nevada foothills and aspen groves beneath snow-covered peaks

I made my first Sierra Nevada autumn aspen trip earlier this week. (This wasn’t my first aspen hunt of the season, though — a week ago I went into Eastern Nevada to look for them, too.) I just had a couple of days this time, though I’ll be back there again before too long. I did a rather high-mileage trip for such a short visit. On Tuesday I traveled east from the Bay Area to cross the crest at Carson Pass. I headed south over Monitor Pass to get to US 395, and then I headed south to find a campsite in Bishop Canyon. It was an “interesting” weather day — I drove through light snow flurries on the upper portion of US 395, though it cleared once I got south of Mammoth Lakes. Aspen conditions? In short, color is changing in many places, though had only peaked in a very few, so there is plenty of color left to come.

People often ask, “Where is the best place to find aspen color?” (You may have heard — I wrote a book on the subject!) I think that the best answer is perhaps not to name one or another place but to consider how aspen color evolves each fall and the many potential places to look for it. A short answer is that you can head over just about any trans-Sierra pass from highway 80 south and keep your eyes peeled! In general, things tend to move from north to south and from high to low, so keep that in mind as you look. But right now, if you cross any of these passes and take a cruise up and down US 395, all you really need to do is keep your eyes open and be prepared to do a bit of investigating… and you are almost certain to be rewarded.

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

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Nevada

Autumn Aspens, Great Basin

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Autumn Aspens, Great Basin
Autumn aspen trees drop their leaves, Great Basin National Park

Autumn Aspens, Great Basin. Great Basin National Park, Nevada. September 27, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn aspen trees drop their leaves, Great Basin National Park

I began this year’s Great Fall Color Chase in a different location — not the Eastern Sierra Nevada, but instead about as far east as one can go in Nevada, at the Great Basin National Park. Several factors led me to make this trip — some specifically fall color related, and others that don’t connect to that activity. Over the past few years I have noticed a few things about Sierra Nevada fall color season. The crowds have been increasing, to the point that they can sometimes be a bit too much. But quieter and less crowded places are still available if you look around a bit. And sometimes looking a bit beyond the confines of the Sierra turns up some interesting color, perhaps in places you might not expect. The latter realization has pushed me gradually further east of the Sierra itself… and what could be a more natural extension of that process than going to the eastern boundary of Nevada?

But fall color was only part of my reason for making the long trip to Great Basin National Park. I know a bit about the basin and range country, but my direct experience with it is limited — and this park (and the long drive across many basins and ranges to get there!) offered the chance to confront this new, to me, landscape. I arrived a few days before the end of September, thinking that the somewhat earlier color change that I’ve seen in next-door Utah might be mirrored in Nevada. This turned out to be partially true — there was already aspen and cottonwood and other types of color, but it wasn’t quite at peak just yet. But I learned a lot on this trip, about where to look for the color (including one canyon I discovered just a bit too late) and when to find it. I made this photograph of trees growing in a large valley below the summit ridge that holds Wheeler Peak, the 13,000+ footer that is the second-tallest peak in Nevada.

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 and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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