Inyo County Visitors Guide - 11th Edition

8 INYO COUNTY • 11th Edition Most visitors who drive up and down US 395 through Inyo County are impressed by the striking landscapes on both sides of the road. On one side is the dramatic upshot of granite peaks that make up the Sierra. Opposite the Sierra, subtle colors mix on the more rounded slopes of the White and Inyo mountains. What many people aren’t able to see from the valley floor are impressive displays of fall colors when crisp autumn temperatures turn the leaves of cottonwood trees, aspens, willows and oaks into a vibrant explosion of shades of yellows, reds and green. That’s because those colorful sights hide a bit, in mountain valleys and lakes, from the casual observer. That is one of several differences between the Eastern Sierra’s fall color season and the more well-known fall color hotspots, such as New England or the Rocky Mountains. Those regions’ entire mountain landscapes turns into sweeping, colorful sights. The wooded hills and mountains are covered completely with color. In the Eastern Sierra, on the other hand, the leafy trees do not typically cover entire mountains. Instead, there are little stands and groves of trees at a certain range of elevation off the valley floor. Those higher-altitude trees turn colors first. Then, later in the fall, the big cottonwoods and other trees on the valley floor take their turn as colorful characters. That means Inyo County’s fall color season has a nice long run. Another unique aspect to the fall color season is that for the most part the striking scenery can be viewed by simply driving up well-known local roads that reach into the high country. The key is to time the drive to match the colors. For years, locals and late-season anglers and hikers pretty much had the colorful display of fall foliage to themselves. But that little secret turned out to be hard to keep. Transplants to California from more forested states who were tired of beach scenes and huge, green pine trees, tried to duplicate the leaf-peeping scenes they left behind. Fall Colors Will Leaf you Happy, After a Little Extra Effort Continued on page 9