Natural History Wanderings

Michael Frye reports on his Landscape Photography Blog

Yesterday we scouted areas around Lee Vining, and most of the aspen groves here are at about the stage you would expect for the second week of October. That means that the lower-elevation aspens still have a lot of green, and more color can be found in the mid- and high-elevation areas. The best color we saw was in Warren Canyon (in upper Lee Vining Canyon), around Conway Summit (including the lowest part of the road to Virginia Lakes), and Dunderberg. The June Lake Loop and lower Lee Vining Canyon still show a lot of green. We didn’t visit Lundy Canyon yet, but heard there was some nice color there.

We also found some aspen groves that seem to have lost their leaves prematurely. These tend to be in drier areas, so that might a sign of the drought. But these places are a minority, and most of the aspens look healthy and are changing according to their normal schedule.

The large, lower-elevation groves in Lee Vining Canyon and along the June Lake Loop are showing signs of changing, and look like they’ll be most colorful next week. Again, it’s typical for those areas to peak around the third week of October. In the meantime, you have to look a little higher!

See photos at Fall Color in the Eastern Sierra