FALL FOLIAGE? It isn't like there's an alert that a branch of leaves can send directly to your phone, a message that says that the color of a certain tree-filled region is nearly at its peak. Instead, foliage lovers look to people, to those fellow road trippers and hikers and adventurers, to send such alerts and updates. (No disrespect to the leaves, but they're too busy changing color, via the breaking down of chlorophyll, to send alerts to the phones of human fans.) So just where should a Golden Stater look for such alerts and updates, in terms of when the aspens and cottonwoods and sweet gums and oaks start to do their whole, spectacular, only-in-autumn show? That place is California Fall Color, a site overseen by foliage-loving writer and traveler John Poimiroo. Foliage fans regularly write into Mr. Poimiroo, to say where they've seen leaves changing, whether that's Plumas County, around June Lake in the Eastern Sierra, or the Los Angeles Arboretum. And those updates will now arrive at regular intervals, thanks to the...
START OF FALL... on Friday, Sept. 22. As anyone who has looked for foliage can guess, the higher elevations don their dazzling reds and golds first, while areas around Los Angeles and San Diego can prettily push the season out into December. Watching for peak, or near peak, is essential, if you want to see the tree-based hues at their most pronounced glory, and California Fall Color keeps tabs on the various levels of peakdom throughout the season. If you'd like to send in your own observations or stunning snapshots, in order to help your foliage-loving friends around California, you can; here's the information on the submission process. Or just take a few minutes to scroll through the posts from recent years to get a sense of when favorite areas or regions have peaked in the past. Thanks to our wet winter last year, and other weather factors, the peaks may not be the same this year, do note. But trust that, week-by-week, throughout all of autumn, California Fall Color has your foliage-fancying back.
