2018 Fall Color Hunting – Part I
Autumn color swept through Northern California in October, we quickly changed our plan, instead of waiting until Thanksgiving we decided to head north on October 19 right after work, just a few weeks after Ti Family did. We missed the fall color peak around the north lake area, but discovered so much more out of surprises.
McGee Creek Campground
I ran out of kibbles before this trip, but feeding TT commercial food always worries me, so I dehydrated our home made meal into jerky like pieces as well as some dried fish treats for this adventure. TT was really pleased with his food.
We drove to Bishop on Friday night. A friend of mine who came a week earlier told me the temperature went down to 35°F at night, it was miserable because somehow the heater was broken in the room he stayed in. I love cold more than heat, and I believe TT agrees with me on this one too. The night we slept there we didn’t even turn on the heater, the air was crisp and wonderful.
Everything was great until the next morning, I found out our go to dinner Danny’s changed their menu, and my go to apple cranberry salad was removed.
We came to McGee Creek Campground after my sad breakfast, I made such a lazy plan this time, just some random pins on my google map, and McGee Creek was one of them.
Aspens grow along this mountain stream, its banks covered with so many golden leaves that I had to stand really close to the edge to have a peek down.
The sun was almost too bright, it reminded me what San Francisco is like, chill air with big sunshine. I felt too warm after walking for 5 minutes and needed shades.
We found some coverage, but not for too long, Quentin said this fall is quite different from his hometown, here we see mostly greenish yellow. Fall is usually orange or red in Massachusetts.
The higher we hiked, the less interesting the view became, we turned back without knowing how far this trail extends.
June Lake
We stopped by June Lake, I was a bit scared to see it because Jennifer told me she became very emotional when she visited old places around here we used to go. I miss those play dates we had as much as she does.
It turned out to be just me over thinking because I didn’t even remember the right path to the lakeshore…
We drove all around the lake 2 times and I made a decision to drop our car by the street and maneuvered down to an unfamiliar rocky area. The place we did watersports years ago was actually right across the water on the other end. If we were on the other side we’d be able to catch a view of a prefect mirrored colorful scenery.
I forgot that if you want to see the sunset with the Empire State Building in it, you should go to the top of the Rockefeller Center, not the Empire State Building, duh.
We continued the search for fall colors toward Lee Vining.
Didn’t take us too long until we ran into this spot which looks way too familiar to me. It’s actually the place I stopped by back in 2014 with Jennifer and her pups, a horrible headache forced me into sleeping in the car that day so I didn’t get a chance to look around.
I stepped into this random area filled with yellow aspens, this is not a trail, just a bunch of colorful foliage decided to live together in the middle of nowhere.
Silver Lake
We saw a ravishing fall color on both sides of the road before entering Silver Lake parking lot. TT decided to lay on a pile of mud so I might as well take a photo of him against the early sunsetting light with my phone camera.
Time to find us dinner, color hunts can wait.
- Same Trip Different Day:
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