Natural History Wanderings

California Fall Color has several new posts. Highlights include:

• Hope Valley –The Hope Valley (CA-88) has arrived, with autumn color painting its aspen in lovely tones of vermillion, rose, orange, saffron, yellow and lime.
  The best days to visit Hope Valley in the coming week appear to be Sunday (tomorrow), Monday, Friday and Saturday (Oct. 6), with rain and snow Tues. through Thurs.
  Hope Valley (7,300′) – Near Peak (50-75%) GO NOW!
• Sonora Pass – Like the Tioga Road (CA-120E), fall color along the Sonora Pass is often removed from the highway, though there are places where it gets up close and personal.quaking aspen that are at the high end of being Patchy, with Near Peak color just around the bend.
  Sonora Pass (9,624′) – Patchy (10-50%)
• San Jose – a San Jose park draped with electric pink, yellow, orange and lime Chinese pistache, Pistacia chinensis, as if decorated for a fiesta.
• The colorful trees are one of the first exotic varieties to show fall color, and carry long-lasting vibrance for weeks. Native to western and central China, it is now so common a non-native tree in California, that they are naturalizing.San Jose (82′) – Just Starting (0-10%)

See photos and detailed reports at California Fall Color