Natural History Wanderings

Michael Frye has a full color report for the Eastern Sierra from this past weekend. His reports are very reliable so it was interesting to see that he found the color not as far along as some other earlier reports: Here are some highlights of what he saw:

On the drive over we could see some color changes starting to appear in the highest aspen groves, like where Warren Canyon meets Lee Vining Canyon along Highway 120 east of Tioga Pass, and on the higher reaches of the Parker Bench, above the northern end of the June Lake Loop just southeast of Parker Lake.

Best I found right now was the Rock Creek Canyon area.  Lots of yellow and orange,

North Lake: the peak color hadn’t arrived yet.

Lake Sabrina:  few patches of good color in the area, notably near the outlet to North Lake, and along the road below Lake Sabrina, but most of the aspens were still green or lime green.

Overall I’d say the eastern-Sierra color is a little early at the higher elevations.

If you have your heart set on photographing the color around North Lake or Lake Sabrina then you should definitely go soon, like this weekend, or maybe the next, but the eastern-Sierra aspen show will last for another month as the colors move down the slopes. In areas like the June Lake Loop and Lee Vining Canyon the peak color doesn’t usually arrive until the third or fourth week of October.

Read his full post and see photos at: Signs of Autumn