Fall Color In Bishop Creek Canyon
The Sierra Nevada is a mountain range the vast majority of the which lies in eastern California. There are many forested areas most of which have primarily evergreen trees. However there are places where there are groves of deciduous trees which according to pictures I have seen can display brilliant colors in fall. This year I followed Sierra Nevada fall color reports and looked at pictures people were taking. When these showed that many of the trees in Bishop Creek Canyon were near or at peak color I decided to go and see what fall color I could find there.
After a long drive I made it to the town of Bishop, California where I turned west on Route 168 (West Line Street). I followed this road until the turnoff to South Lake which is South Lake Road. After a short distance I got to Bishop Creek Lodge where I saw these groves of colorful trees.
Zooming in on the mass of rocks Misty Falls can be seen cascading down the rocks.
I went a little further for another view of these trees.
And zoomed in to better see the foliage.
I found a spot where a tree had a backdrop of blue sky with interesting clouds.
The colorful areas were somewhat spread out along South Lake Road. So my exploration of Bishop Creek Canyon followed the pattern of driving to where I saw nice color, finding a place to park, and walking to find a good view to take pictures.
Here there was bright color in the foreground with subdued color on the hills behind.
This is near Parchers Resort where the road winds between yellow trees.
Trees and mountains near Weir Lake.
At the outlet end of South Lake there is some color on the mountains behind the lake.
I finally got to the parking lot at the end of the road. After this hiking is needed to explore more.
On this trip I just went a short distance on the Bishop Pass Trail. I thought this was a pretty display of fall color with a little of South Lake and mountains behind.
There were so many places to capture the scenery.
From a little different viewpoint the color on the mountains behind South Lake.
More fall color along the Bishop Pass Trail.
A closer look at an aspen tree. These trees provide much of the yellow fall color here.
Looking toward the inlet end of South Lake where more of the mountains behind can be seen.
This is where I turned around to go back to my car. Several years ago I continued on this trail to a lake up in the mountains. For those interested in more there is a link to my post for that hike at the end of this one.
Since there was still daylight left I decided to go back to Route168 and take it to Lake Sabrina where the road ends at the boat launch. The hills around the lake have some scattered color. Several years ago I also did a hike from Lake Sabrina to yet another lake in the mountains and there is a link to that post.
Zooming in for a closer view of the color.
At the outlet of the lake is a beautiful grove of trees.
There is also a view of the distant White Mountains which are east of Bishop.
It is interesting where viewing from different angles can make the colors appear different. Here they are bright yellow.
And here the same trees appear orange.
This is another against the sky view of the trees.
I will end my fall exploration of Bishop Creek Canyon with a bit of a reflection.
I very much enjoyed seeing all the fall color which was well worth the drive to get there. For those thinking of making the trip the time of the peak color varies from year to year and from place to place. The source I used to determine when and where to go is listed in the more information. The site also lists other areas in California though some are dependent on people supplying the information to them. Even if you do not hit the exact peak there is usually some spectacular color to be found because different areas and even within an area things change color at a little different time though you can’t miss it by too much.
My posts of the two previous hikes in this area are Hike From South Lake to Marie Louise Lakes and Hike From Lake Sabrina to Blue Lake.
The picture gallery for this post is Bishop Creek Canyon Fall Color
More Information:
California Fall Color – the website I used to determine where and when to go
