Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
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 Mono Basin National Scenic Area Nearly all of the area is in Mono County, which is nearly peak today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 16 days earlier than the area’s own stands: the area is still green.By elevation The area runs from about 6,383 to 8,306 feet. That’s 22 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 7, the low ground holds until about Oct 17, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 6,000 to 6,500 foot band.
7,500–8,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 78%
7,000–7,500 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 119%
6,500–7,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1527%
6,000–6,500 ftStill greenpeak Oct 1749%
SepOctNov
Height off 3DEP inside the area’s own boundary; each band carries the date our model gives that elevation, corrections and all. The percentage is how much of the area stands in it.
See it now PhenoCam Network, Whitebark krummholz camera, 22 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.
Friday 16 October to Saturday 17 October
You’ll find it just past peak up high, peak color lower down.
Up at 7,000 feet the stands peak around Oct 11; down at 6,500 feet they hold on until about Oct 17. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
7,000–7,500 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 11
6,500–7,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 15
6,000–6,500 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 17
Where to drive
June Lake Loop (Route 158), about 15 miles · US Route 395 (Eastern Sierra), about 29 miles · Sonora Pass (Route 108), about 40 miles
What turns
willow, Fremont cottonwood, narrowleaf cottonwood, quaking aspen, water birch
What turns, and when
willow32%
Fremont cottonwood25%
narrowleaf cottonwood19%
quaking aspen12%
water birch9%
white alder3%
Also named across California, outside what the canopy read measures here: Black Oak, Bigleaf Maple.
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
