California - October 2022

[David Hedley]

Hello everyone - after a few years away, I am beginning to get back into LF photography now that I have retired. My wife and I have a few days in San Francisco in mid-October, mainly to help her sister in moving house, but we should be able to find 4-5 days to head off and do something within a reasonable drive of SF. The focus would not be exclusively photography - I'd like to do some interesting hikes, not necessarily in the most well-known places, but with some photographic potential.

First thoughts are;

- Yosemite - but I'm not sure if it will still be very busy in mid-October, and whether the recent fire in Wawona is still causing problems
- Mono Lake / High Sierra - if this is viable, what would you recommend in terms of hikes, and places to stay
- Monterey / Point Lobos - OK, mainly as a homage to Edward Weston, but this might be a bit easier to organise, and be a little more relaxed than Yosemite or the High Sierra?

I've realised that I was last in California about 30 years ago, so need some guidance! Do any of the above make sense? What would you do, and what alternatives would you recommend?

Many thanks in advance,

David

[Pieter]

Point Reyes, a little over an hour north of San Francisco.

[Alan Klein]

Lake Tahoe is two hours north of Mono Lake for a nice place to stay and do gambling if interested on the Nevada side.

Here's a round trip map for this trip from and back to SF.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/San+...37.7749295!3e0

[Drew Wiley]

Oct is typically the hottest month of the year along the coast, and also the highest for potential fire smoke drifting in from elsewhere, or even starting up locally. It's my least favorite month for Pt Reyes or GGNRA.
Pt Lobos and the Monterey area in general can get awfully crowded prior to winter, and 101 traffic that direction can be horrific, especially on weekends. Hwy 1 is more relaxing in my opinion, and more scenic.

Mono Lk is still likely to be hot except morning and evening, but campsites can be found higher up around Virginia Lks - will be cold at night, and an early snowfall is always a possibility. Tioga Pass is generally closed at the end of Oct or first significant snowfall of Nov. But with all this drought plus overall storm and fire unpredictability, things can suddenly change; so you always want to check road and Park conditions right in advance. It's a much nicer time to visit Yosemite Valley itself than in the summer, and there is likely to be some nice fall color. The route up the Merced River from Mariposa to El Portal is likely to have a lot of cleanup and repair mess going on from the previous fire, so the entrance going to Crane Flat and then down into the Valley would be preferable if coming from SF. What I particularly like to do is take Sonora Pass instead, car camp up there, and then drop down to 395, Mono Lk, etc, hit 120 at Lee Vining, and take that over Tioga Pass into Yosemite. That makes a nice loop trip. Lots of possibilities.

As usual, be prepared for any kind or weather, including a good sleeping bag. Autumn days can be quite deceptive. I've often encountered folks on the trails in T-shirts and shorts under a flawless blue sky and air temps in the 70's. Then the sky would suddenly turn black and it would start snowing. A twisted ankle or hypothermia, and they might not be found until the next summer's thaw. I always kept an extra jacket - a loaner - in my pack for just such predicaments. It's a popular time on the east side of the range due to the aspen color, especially around Conway Summit, Lundy Can, June Lakes, McGee Can, etc. But always always always have both a rain parka and warm sweater or jacket in your day pack. Decent boots too can be important versus jogging shoes, even in a light snow. It was less than ten years ago that I was helping search for two day hikers under exactly the circumstances I just described. They were both found late the same afternoon - too late - already both dead of hypothermia. Often the difference between fun and fatality is just a matter of proper clothing and footwear. Do have fun!

[h2oman]

Coast idea from a non-californian: Salt Point and VanDamme State Parks, and the Mendocino headlands. Someone like Drew could better address the crowdedness of that area vs Pt Lobos or Pt Reyes. Salt Point has a lot of interesting rock formations, and there is a nice walk along the rocks to the north from the closest driving access to the ocean. There is a nice walk up the creek at VanDamme SP. Can't comment too much on the Mendocino headlands - by sheer accident we went there on a day of a "king tide," and it was one of the more spectacular natural phenomena I've ever seen. Not sure what it would be like under "normal" conditions. Lots of walking around the bluffs over the ocean, as I recall.

[Drew Wiley]

Salt Point is an excellent alternative, with many view camera accessible spots, at least via reasonably short hikes, but only one campground is open this year and it might be wise to reserve a space in advance. It's a developed campground in a pretty setting with flush toilets and sinks, but no showers. Don't leave food out; if raccoons look like bandits, it's because they are! The amount of salt spray for which it is named depends on the winds; but that's a time of year the wind is relatively inactive. Mendocino is a much further drive north.

IF accommodations are needed on an east side Sierra trip, you might or might not have luck in the tiny town of Lee Vining beside Mono Lk; but there are plenty of motels in Mammoth half an hour to the south on 395; and being off-season, ski resort wise, rates might be reasonable. Best quick food by far is at the deli inside the Mobil Station where 120 intersects with 395 at the bottom of the Tioga road.

[Vaughn]

Nuthin finer than the northern redwoods in October...except perhaps in November and a little into December. Then it just gets nice until all the dang leaves grow back on the maples, alders, and berries.

Trails can be a little crowded...a person might even see someone and have to say howdy.

[Drew Wiley]

Yeah, other than red poison oak, "Fall" color tends to occur on the north half of the Calif coast with respect to maples, sycamore, willows, etc, all the way from Nov through January. At the higher altitudes of the Sierra , it's pretty much over by the end of Oct. But that's a popular month with the aspen photography crowd. Cottonwoods lower down in Owens Valley turn a few weeks later.

Incidentally, Vaughan, I stumbled onto a true old growth redwood down here a couple months ago after navigating a jungle of poison oak vines and nettles. Nearly everything, even in tour bus invaded Muir Woods, is actually second growth after 19th C logging. But this particular tree was such an ugly duckling, all hollowed out at the bottom, and somehow broken off only forty feet up, that it escaped. Reminds me of the Bull Buck Tree up in my hometown area - the biggest girth Sequoia ever found (frankly, the biggest diameter tree in the world), and the only mature tree in that grove that was spared, simply because no crosscut saw long enough existed. It's the Forest Service champion; but the General Sherman tree is the NP champion per cumulative board footage, at least now. The very biggest one in what is now Sequoia NP was itself cut down in the 19th C. One can still stand on the stump.

[Vaughn]

In the far northern redwoods, the Big-leaf maples are in October and once done, followed by the vine maple. The cascara buckthorn shows some color, then it is just the yellow of the berries (esp thimble and salmon) until thanksgiving. By this time the alders leaves are all off without significant color, and the forest opens up wonderfully.

Redwood National Park had to close the whole watershed to visitors that houses the world's tallest tree. People got the coordinates and just had to see it...messing up the place. The backpack trips I took this year have been in the same area...instead of visiting the tallest redwood, I spent time in small isolated groves of redwoods that few visitors ever see, yet some of the trees I sat under rank in the top 10 tallest in the world. No...I don't know which ones specifically, but got some good guesses.

The General Sherman is in a tree museum in comparison.

But I tell ya...the rhododendron flowers this early June under the redwoods were knock-out beautiful...a wet spring!

[Drew Wiley]

The tallest tree ever discovered was actually atop a ridge not far behind me here. Now there's not even a stump, just a marker hard to find behind some brush. It was cut down by a scientist wanting to count the rings. There were redwoods everywhere on these hills, and every single one of them was cut down. All our current "redwood parks" are planted. Besides up where you live, the Big Basin is the only area holding old growth, and it recently underwent a severe fire. Hard to say if any redwoods south of the Golden Gate will long-term survive climate change. it takes centuries to create the sheer understory biomass necessary to create true old growth temperate forests.

Yeah, the location of the tallest extant coastal redwoods isn't officially designated, but word has gotten out and GPS coordinates disseminated enough to get forest managers worried about shallow roots getting trampled by recent foot traffic. The damn web has darn near become the equivalent of the chainsaw. Trees get loved to death. Same with petroglyphs, all kinds of things.

Most of the giant Sequoia groves don't involve "museum specimens"; but many were also severely impacted by recent extreme top-down crown fires. They estimate that 10% of all the trees over 2000 yrs old were killed, and of course, far more of the younger ones. It was simply impossible to protect them like the relatively few General-this, General-that specimens along the highway or in Grant Grove.