Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
No new reports from the ground here this week.
Still greenStartingNearly peakPeakPast peakNo fall canopy we forecastInside the line, each band of elevation is painted on its own date.
Around Emigrant Wilderness Nearly all of the wilderness is in Tuolumne County, which is still green today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 28 days later than the wilderness’s own stands: the wilderness is starting to turn. Mono County, to the east, is 37 days ahead.By elevation The wilderness runs from about 6,222 to 10,079 feet. That’s 35 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 19, the low ground holds until about Oct 24, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 7,000 to 8,000 foot band.
10,000–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 196%
9,000–10,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2525%
8,000–9,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 137%
7,000–8,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 722%
6,000–7,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 156%
5,000–6,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 244%
SepOctNov
Height off 3DEP inside the wilderness’s own boundary; each band carries the date our model gives that elevation, corrections and all. The percentage is how much of the wilderness stands in it.
Latest daylight frame PhenoCam Network, Whitebark krummholz camera, 22 km away, captured Sep 23.Plan this trip
If you can only come on certain days
Set the days you can be here. Everything under them answers for those days, not for peak.
Friday 9 October to Saturday 10 October
You’ll find it fading up high, just past peak lower down.
Up at 9,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 25; down at 8,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 7. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
9,000–10,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 25
8,000–9,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 1
7,000–8,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 7
Where to drive
Sonora Pass (Route 108), about 12 miles · June Lake Loop (Route 158), about 46 miles · US Route 395 (Eastern Sierra), about 66 miles
What turns
Fremont cottonwood, white alder, willow, California black oak, bigleaf maple
What turns, and when
Fremont cottonwood30%
white alder20%
willow20%
California black oak12%
bigleaf maple10%
quaking aspen5%
Eastern Sierra aspens turn brilliant gold against granite walls, black oaks in Yosemite Valley go bronze and russet, and cottonwoods line the desert creeks in pale yellow.
This forecast is built from the species that stand here, their elevation and this September’s weather, and corrected in season by cameras, foresters and our own crew. Out here we score it against NASA's satellite record of when the canopy shuts down, read inside each unit’s own boundary: two dates in three land within 12 days of it. How this map is made
