Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
Weather Wind to 45 mph Friday. Color may come down before it turns.
Weather Hard frost Monday night. Peak may come early and go fast.
6 reports came in from Mono County this week, 4 of them patchy color and 2 of them still green. Our date held. See the county on the map.
Still greenStartingNearly peakPeakPast peakNo fall canopy we forecastInside the line, each band of elevation is painted on its own date.
Around Hoover Wilderness Mono County holds most of the wilderness and is nearly peak today. Tuolumne County, to the west, is 37 days behind.By elevation The wilderness runs from about 7,608 to 11,209 feet. That’s 19 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 19, the low ground holds until about Oct 8, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 8,000 to 9,000 foot band.
11,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 199%
10,000–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1928%
9,000–10,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2533%
8,000–9,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 122%
7,000–8,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 89%
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.
Wednesday 30 September to Thursday 1 October
You’ll find it just past peak up high, nearly peak lower down.
Up at 11,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 19; down at 8,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 8. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
11,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 19
10,000–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 19
9,000–10,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 25
8,000–9,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 1
7,000–8,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 8
Where to drive
Sonora Pass (Route 108), about 18 miles · June Lake Loop (Route 158), about 30 miles · US Route 395 (Eastern Sierra), about 50 miles
What turns
quaking aspen, Fremont cottonwood, willow, white alder, California black oak
What turns, and when
quaking aspen49%
Fremont cottonwood16%
willow12%
white alder10%
California black oak7%
bigleaf maple6%
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
