Natural History Wanderings

California Fall Color reports

Traveling west on I-80 from Truckee to Auburn, we saw the full range of past peak to peak color, today.

Above 6,000′, trees are stripped of color. No surprise; the High Sierra is Past Peak.

However, at 5,700′ and below, black oak are peaking with full peak at Dutch Flat (3,144′).

Over the years, I have driven past Dutch Flat a couple hundred times, but never exited. Today, in search of fall color, I exited and Dutch Flat is anything but flat when it comes to its color and charm.

Dutch Flat was full of fall color.  This stretch of I-80 is peaking from Drum Forebay Rd. west, past Dutch Flat and Colfax to Auburn.  Golden cottonwood, orange-yellow black oak and crimson exotics are backlit brilliantly by afternoon sunlight. There seems to be no obvious vantage point from which to overlook the forest, though hillsides painted with orange black oak and dark green pine are evident along I-80.

Peak (75-100%) GO NOW! – Sierra Foothills (5,500′ to 2,000′)

See photos and full posting at Sierra Foothills