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Foliage Guide
When They Peak Check the “Awesome Autumn” blog at the website www.plumascounty.org for up-to-date reports on fall color and the best places to find it. We post “leaf peeper” reports as soon as fall colors appear, beginning around the last week in September. The reports continue as long as the color lasts, usually through mid-November, depending on weather and elevation. If you’re planning a trip around the fall colors, you may also call the visitor centers listed on page 10.
Mountain Dogwood California Black Oak
Willow
Bracken Fern
Very colorful Sumac
Zach Johnson
Quincy/La Porte Road. Quincy is the county seat and the courthouse on Main Street is surrounded by a fortress of maples, sycamores and liquid ambers. Coming into town southeast on Highway 70, travelers will be treated to a montage of oak, maple and poplars sprinkled among the homes that rest against the backdrop of the western Sierra. Going east through Quincy, turn right on La Porte Road. Less than a mile south on the old Thompson Ranch stands an stately old English maple. The only one of its kind in the area, its leaves turn incredible shades of champagne pink and deep scarlet. The drive to the historical town of La Porte winds through canyons, crosses the Middle Fork of the Feather River and is a spectacular color excursion. Lakes Basin Recreation Area. South of Graeagle between Highways 89 and 49 is the Lakes Basin Recreation Area. Over 9,000 acres of wilderness, lakes, streams and bountiful trees comprise this beautiful and rugged part of the county. Because of the high altitude, the quaking aspens are some of the first trees to turn in the fall and provide splashes of luminous color throughout the area. Portola/Sierra Valley. The drive up to Lake Davis and Frenchman Lake in the eastern section of the county takes you past stunning groves of quaking aspen and cottonwood that jump out against the dark green conifers. Spectacular foliage can also be seen along Rocky Point Road in Portola, which parallels the Middle Fork Feather River. Off-road color. Some of the county’s best color is hidden off the roadways. You can view some glorious autumn leaves on a hike, on horseback, A celebrity tree: The Theiler Tree in on a mountain bike, while Quincy is one of the favorites to watch hunting, or while fishing or during leaf-peeping season. boating.
Big Leaf Maple
Black Cottonwood
Indian Rhubarb
Quaking Aspen illustrations by Elizabeth Owen
ving ted dri sugges online at f o p a r ee m rs, o Get a fr visitor cente at .org. ty n routes u o lumasc www.p
2012 - 2013 PLUMAS COUNTY VISITORS GUIDE
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