With 2010 moving towards autumn, fall colors are on many photographers’ minds. Just this weekend, Phil Colla published on his blog a very helpful list of fall color resources. I won’t repeat them all here, but I did want to add some of my own observations.
We hiked into the North Fork of Big Pine Creek on 9/10-9/11. Below 9,000′, there is no fall color yet, with all the aspen still being green. However, above 9,000′, and up to 10,000′ there is color starting to appear. Some trees have beautiful golden or red sections, and a few (read: very few) trees have already turned completely.
Early Fall Colors, September 2010
The above photo illustrates well what we observed between 9,000′ and 10,000′ elevation. I would guess that in 2-3 more weeks the colors will really be hopping at higher elevations, as well as moving down in altitude.
As a sidenote, some of the cottonwoods in the Owens Valley appear to be losing some of their color, but nothing striking yet.
It looks to be pretty much the same here in Montana. A little bit of gold starting to show up, but not much change yet.
Just came back from Mammoth and Lake Tahoe. Definitely starting to see some yellow and red in the trees while we hiked around the lakes. Very cool. Can’t wait for more pow.
Thanks for the update! Its good to know things are coming along nicely up there! Maybe my schedule will allow me to get up there this year…