Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
Weather Hard frost Monday night. Peak may come early and go fast.
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 John Muir Wilderness Inyo County holds most of the wilderness and is starting to turn today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 16 days later than the wilderness’s own stands: the wilderness is nearly peak. Fresno County, to the west, is 16 days behind. Mono County, to the north, is 14 days ahead.By elevation The wilderness runs from about 6,845 to 12,092 feet. That’s 21 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 23, the low ground holds until about Oct 14, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 8,000 to 10,000 foot band.
12,000–14,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 236%
10,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1937%
8,000–10,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 134%
6,000–8,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1423%
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.
See it now PhenoCam Network, Lower Teakettle camera, 19 km away, captured Sep 25.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.
Monday 28 September to Tuesday 29 September
You’ll find it just past peak up high, starting to turn lower down.
Up at 10,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 19; down at 8,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 14. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
10,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 19
8,000–10,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 1
6,000–8,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 14
Where to drive
Bishop Creek Road (Route 168), about 10 miles · US Route 395 (Eastern Sierra), about 29 miles · June Lake Loop (Route 158), about 46 miles
What turns
Fremont cottonwood, willow, white alder, quaking aspen, California black oak
What turns, and when
Fremont cottonwood27%
willow18%
white alder18%
quaking aspen18%
California black oak11%
bigleaf maple9%
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
