October 24, 2008
This is going to be the BEST
weekend for fall foliage in Plumas
County, so try to get out there and
enjoy it! Here's what Main Street Quincy
looked like yesterday, with silver
maples and liquid ambers in front of the
Plumas County Courthouse in full color.
We've had quite a few folks in raving
about color, and others wondering "where
it's best." The answer: It's pretty good
just about EVERYWHERE now!" Here's
a shot Terri Rust sent from Meadow
Valley, on the way to Bucks Lake. We've
heard the drive from Oroville to Bucks
Lake and Quincy via Hwy. 162 is a hot
spot now.
And Scott Lawson's shot, below, of
Mt. Washington from Johnsville Road
shows both aspens and cottonwoods
glowing.
A very happy couple showed up last
night after making the long drive from
Los Angeles. They're out today enjoying
the fall color in Eastern Plumas County
via horseback while on a ride with
Red's Meadow Ranch located
outside of Clio. Red's is open
year-round, and this time of year their
rides are exploding with color!
Enjoy the weekend, and please
send us your fall color photos and
leaf-peeper reports!
October 23, 2008
Dan
Nie of Cupertino sent these photos
and writes:
Just
spent two days at Plumas last weekend
for watching Fall Colors. I am very
impressed by the beautiful county in
this golden season. I will visit Plumas
next year again because this time I
didn't get enough time to visit all the
places!
Among the spots Dan did get to were
Indian Creek (left), Quincy (below left)
and Indian Valley (red foliage and
barn), and along with the Feather River
Canyon, below.
Dorothy
Wilson from the Tobin Post Office
dropped by to let us know that Highway
70 through the Feather River Canyon
is a very pretty ride and it will
flourish this weekend. “Even the
burn zone has its own kind of
beauty,” she said. Wilson expects that
the canyon will reach peak in the next
couple of weeks.
From north county, Donyale Logan
checked in again:
Fall colors are exploding here in the
Lake Almanor Basin. The colors are
all over the lake all the way towards
Westwood, thru Chester and also in the
residential neighborhood Lake Almanor
West. The colors are yellow, orange and
red!! WOW!!!!!!!!
If you're coming this weekend, check
out the Dawn Institute Apple Festival,
located along Hwy. 89 at Indian Falls,
south of Greenville. And over in Sloat,
there's the famous annual Halloween
Party, starting at 8:30 p.m. Check
our
events calendar for more
information.
October 22, 2008
Okay, Jim from the Weather Channel
called again, and this time, we’re
calling it. It’s PEAK fall foliage in
Plumas County! The majority of oaks
and cottonwoods have turned, and
leaf-peepers from throughout the county
are raving about it.
If you’re coming this weekend, both the
color and the weather should be
fantastic. If you’re wondering how long
it will last…..well, let’s say at least
a week, maybe two.
Sara Frigo and kid friends
from Quincy took a hike yesterday
along the Mt. Hough Road north of
Quincy for some truly awesome autumn
views across the American Valley. To ge
t
to this spot, drive north from the
stoplight on Hwy. 70 and Quincy-Junction
Road, to Chandler Road. Continue on
Quincy-Junction, which turns to dirt,
and head up the hill (to the left.) The
road eventually comes to a place called
“Four Corners” (which is pretty
obvious.) Take a left here, go a little
ways, and park, and start walking on the
road to the right. This group of
leaf-peepers headed out around 4 p.m.
and turned around as the sun started
setting, for a total hike time of about
an hour.
This shot of the silver maples taken
last week in front of the Plumas
County Visitors Bureau in Quincy
clearly shows these giant trees in
transition! Usually, these trees turn
about the same time, but this year it
was a different story.
We’ve had great reviews about the drive
from along Indian Creek on Hwy. 89
between Greenville and the Greenville
Wye. Sarah Metzler of Quincy says "Indian
Creek teased my senses with bursts
of yellow,” and she even had to slow
for wild turkeys out in Indian Valley.
She adds: “The ride was unexpectedly
refreshing and very beautiful.”
And Kelly Weintraub, who
commutes between Quincy and
Taylorsville, reports: The drive is
incredible right now. The oaks and
maples are bright yellow.
Plumas County has been getting
some great publicity lately. Suzi
Brakken’s photo of the silver maples
in front of Quincy High School was
selected to be on
KCRA’s Fall Foliage
webpage.
And Richard McCutcheon’s photo of
the bracken fern taken south of
Grizzly Ridge near Quincy (see
October 13 leaf-peeper blog),
was featured on ABC News
this week.
Make
your weekend plans now and check back
here tomorrow for more details on the
some
great events to accompany
leaf-peeping!
On
Saturday October 18, Bob Brand
drove up from Chico to meet with Joe Willis, shown here
taking photos along Spanish Creek. In
earlier correspondence, Joe had offered
to take Bob on an excursion to some of
the better leaf-peeping
sites in the Quincy area.
About six miles northwest of Quincy,
they turned off Hwy 70 onto Old
Hwy just south of Keddie. After a short drive
they stopped and commenced hiking along
Spanish Creek until the trail
gave out. There was quite a bit of
Indian Rhubarb along the creek. The
typical red color had not yet developed,
but they were able to spot some leaves
that had turned orange.
Later Bob and Joe drove to the
Bucks Lake vicinity where they
observed aspen (photo at right),
dogwood, and other colorful displays.
Kelly Weintraub made the drive from Quincy to
Indian Valley and said it is finally
getting really colorful! The oaks
changed over the weekend (literally!)
and the drive along Highway 89 is
spectacular. The maples are also
glowing, and there are a few pink
dogwoods on the far side of Indian Creek.
Kelly will try to take more pictures
tonight or tomorrow morning, but
meanwhile she said that we can feel
confident in directing people her way
for some beautiful color.
And we just got a call from Donyale
Logan who was coming back from
Westwood to Chester via Hwy 36. She
wanted to let everyone know that the
colors are fantastic!!! The colors in
the community of Chester and around
Lake Almanor are extremely
vibrant!
Nancy
Williams
reports that the aspen in the Bucks
Lake Basin are beginning to reach
peak color. Especially nice right now
are the bright yellow maples and red
dogwoods on the Oro-Quincy Highway
between Bucks Lake and just below the
Plumas/Butte county line. Also, lots
of golden oaks. Nancy also
reminds us that CalTrans is doing
construction on Hwy 70, and that Hwy
162/Oroville-Quincy Hwy is a very
scenic alternative.
The sugar maple at the corner of
High
Street and Lee Way (the
one planted by the late Judge Thieler)
is getting lots of camera-laden visitors
this week. Linda Blum
lives across the street and provided us with the photo above and says it's
at peak now. The neighborhood's other
maple trees are bright yellow,
and many of the aspens are full gold.
Bob Brand
sends the photo of the tree at right, in
front of the Forest Service Headquarters
in Quincy.
The
Sierra Sky Lodge in Cromberg
hosted a pumpkin
carving and apple bobbing contest over
the weekend. Kids and adults alike had
lots of fun creating Jack-o-Lanterns for
Halloween, which is ten
days away!
October 20, 2008
Mother Nature
has kicked into gear! It's looking
like fall foliage pea
k
will finally be here in Plumas County,
and we'll likely be calling it THIS
WEEK. The cottonwoods and oaks that
looked green last week have turned color
seemingly overnight, and you'll see the
evidence along the main highways through
Plumas County.
CELEBRITY TREE ALERT!
Leaf-peepers Tracey Sterling and
Chris Cox of Santa Rosa checked
in again, sharing this photo of the
famous English maple tree one mile from
Quincy along La Porte Road. The
centuries-old tree is peaking with its
gorgeous shade of champagne pink,
intermixed with yellow, orange and red.
L
ots
of fun, great color and a good crowd
Saturday for the Mountain Harvest
Festival in Quincy, highlighted by
micro-brew tasting and music by
blues legend Norton Buffalo. As you can
see, Buffalo wore the right outfit and
certainly was at peak on the harmonica!
Joe Willis , who is always
sending us great photos and updates, was
out a
nd
about this past weekend.
"Saturday, I hiked the
Keddie Cascades trail and drove up to
Bucks Lake with a gentleman
from Chico, Bob Brand, who attended the
"leaf peepers" outing I guided last
fall, and asked I would be doing another
one this year. Since I had nothing
scheduled, I offered to give him a
personal tour."
To the right and above is Joe's photo
taken along Big Creek Road on the
way to Bucks Lake.
There
have been several folks asking about
where to see Indian rhubarb
recently. Joe sent this photo
taken while hiking the
Keddie Cascades trail and added
these comments:
"The
Indian rhubarb were in various stages of
red, orange and brown, and many were
wilted before turning color. They were
also extremely pock-marked from
insects. I assume this is related to
the summer of forest fire stress and
dryness, but I don't know. I remember
that last year I got lots of extreme
closeups of bright red leaves of this
plant without any insect holes".
Another plant that turns various shades
of red and orange, is poison oak, also
along the Keddie Cascades trail.
Though beautiful to look at, this is a
plant to avoid touching, as many
people have an allergic reaction.
Linda, from the Eastern Plumas
Chamber of Commerce, drove
around her neck of the woods this past
weekend and was excited to report many
areas where there is fall color.
She says that about 1/2 to 1 mile down
the Mohawk Chapman Road (south of
Graeagle), the dogwoods are
turning...."beautiful aspens and
willows....lots of yellow along the
river". She also commented on the
beautiful lime green-yellow color of the
thimbleberry plants. The turnoff
to Mohawk Chapman Road is approximately
1 mile up the Gold Lake Highway from Hwy
89. Like Quincy, Linda says
Portola is absolutely stunning .. a
couple of places she suggests are going
up Meadow Wa
y
(turn left from Hwy. 70 heading east at
the CHP office). Continue a short
distance to a meadow where there are a
lot of aspens on the left. There
are also nice "flaming" trees off West
Street and Joy Way on the north
side of Portola.
Toni Morris of Portola can
support this with a nice close-up shot
(above) of the maple in front of her
house. And from along the river by
Sloat, located 1 mile south of Hwy 70
near Cromberg, she
<<<< captured this.
October 18, 2008
Is this the week when the leaves
will peak??? No one really knows
the answer, but
the
trees in Quincy, Meadow Valley and
surrounding areas have changed
noticeably in the past couple of days.
We think it's coming soon!
The black cottonwoods found in
meadows and along streams are beginning
to rival the aspens, turning an
eye-catching yellow. The drive from
Quincy up to the Meadow Valley store is
looking really nice right now … and
while you are up that way, take a drive
a short ways up Schneider Creek Road
where the pink/red of the dogwoods are
vying the yellow Big-leaf maples for attention.
To get to the Schneider Creek
turn-off, drive approximately 10 miles
west of Quincy along Oroville-Quincy
Highway/Bucks Lake Road and take a
left. (If you see the Meadow Valley
Store, you've gone too far.)The paved
road ends after crossing a bridge, but
continue straight onto
the dirt road … you will soon see
maples along your left and dogwoods to
the right which continues for a couple
of miles.
A few hints for successful
leaf-peeping excursions … some of the
nicest colors and photos opportunities
are a stone’s throw from the road, but
are often missed by the passing
motorist. Take time to pull off the
road and look up a ravine, or peak
over the side to see a river below. Or
take a side road up to a lake or through
a valley … these are often the places
where you will see spectacular scenery.
Another hint to enhance your
leaf-peeping experience is plan your
outings so that you have the best
lighting … this is true for photography
as well as viewing. Morning and evening
are the best times for viewing in open
meadow areas. Whereas, drives in ravine
or steep canyon areas are often better
during the middle of the day when more
light is present.
Check out Indian Creek on the
way to Antelope Lake, which begins at
the intersection of Hwys. 70 and 89,
heading north toward Greenville. This
is route #3 on the
Plumas
County Fall color tour map.
We're off for the weekend to check out
the leaves....check back Monday for a
report from La Porte!
