Every autumn somebody asks me where to find fall color around Sacramento, and the honest answer is that it depends on elevation and how cold the nights get. It also depends on which way the wind blew yesterday. That sounds like a dodge. All of it is true, and none of it is useful, so let me try to be more specific than that.
Here is the honest frame first. Sacramento is not New England, and nobody is going to hand you a hillside of unbroken red maple. What we have instead is a long, uneven turn that starts high in the Sierra and works its way down through the foothills into the valley, plus a city canopy that people started planting during the Gold Rush. It arrives in waves. The wave that reaches your street is the last one.
WHY THE COLOR MOVES DOWNHILL, WEEK BY WEEK
Two things happen inside a leaf. Through spring and summer chlorophyll dominates, and chlorophyll is green, so every tree looks the same from June to September. As the nights cool, chlorophyll breaks down and the pigments underneath it finally show: carotenoids, which read yellow and orange. In some trees, sugars trapped in the leaf form anthocyanins, and those are the reds. The color was always in there, just covered up.
What sets the timing is elevation. High in the mountains, aspen groves can turn as early as September. In the foothills, oaks, maples and ornamental pistachios go orange around mid October. In the valley the peak is usually late October into early November, when the sycamores, walnuts and cottonwoods turn. Same autumn, three schedules, weeks apart.
THE VALLEY IS LATER THAN PEOPLE EXPECT
The most common mistake I see is people giving up around Halloween. The high country is finished, so the assumption is that the show is over. It is not. The valley is still going through the first half of November, and in a cold year it runs longer than that. If you live down here, this is the good part. The stretch that is easiest to reach is also the stretch that peaks last.
For a report rather than a guess, californiafallcolor.com tracks the state week by week and keeps an interactive map, compiled by people standing in front of actual trees.
THE CITY ITSELF IS THE ANSWER MOST PEOPLE SKIP
Before Sacramento was America’s Farm to Fork Capital it was the City of Trees, and plenty of people here still call it that. Beginning in the Gold Rush, city officials set out to build a canopy, planting oaks, maples, elms and sycamores. As the neighborhoods spread, developers added showy ornamentals: Chinese pistache, ginkgo, redbud. In late fall, some of the best color in the region is a five minute walk from wherever you parked.
The most colorful neighborhoods are Midtown, Land Park and East Sacramento, and you will find it further out in Elk Grove, Fair Oaks and Natomas. If you are house hunting in the fall, use this rather than fight it. On an older street the trees are part of what you are buying, and among the few features of a block that will still be standing in fifty years.
WHERE TO GO WITHOUT LEAVING TOWN
The American River Parkway is the easy answer. That riparian corridor, with the American River Bike Trail running through it, is lined with sycamores, cottonwoods and oaks, so you get a long stretch of color instead of one photo spot.
Ancil Hoffman Park, in the lower American River area near Carmichael, is the quieter version of the same thing: wooded trails, mature oaks, dappled light.
For a foothill run that is still short, the El Dorado Trail stretches from the town of El Dorado to Camino. Closer in, the Sacramento State campus works better than people expect. The arboretum and the alumni grove fill in, College Town Drive is lined with changing trees, and because the campus sits against the river you can look down on color from the Guy West Bridge.
IF YOU WANT TO MAKE A DAY OF IT
The UC Davis Arboretum is my favorite longer trip. It flanks Putah Creek as a mile-long demonstration garden, with tree collections from regions all over the world: oaks, maples, ginkgo, Chinese pistache and redbud on one walking path.
Folsom Lake is a strong fall day trip because the water does half the work. Golden leaves against blue water is a combination the valley does not give you. Willow Creek Recreation Area on the western shore is one good vantage point.
Auburn State Recreation Area has miles of trails, and the stretch near the confluence of the North and Middle Forks of the American River is especially scenic. Old Town Auburn has color around most corners if you would rather not hike.
Apple Hill near Placerville is the obvious answer and it earns it. Most people drive up for apples and pumpkins, but the drive is the point. Go on a weekday if you can.
THE COMPARISON I REACH FOR, AND WHERE IT STOPS WORKING
The closest ordinary thing I can think of is a tide coming in, except this one arrives from the mountains instead of from the sea. It starts up high where the air is coldest, and it advances downhill a little each week until it reaches the valley floor, where you live.
That gets the direction right and the reliability wrong, and the difference is the whole point. A tide is predictable to the minute and finishes in a few hours. This depends on how cold the nights have been, and it moves at roughly a week per elevation band. One windy afternoon or one hard rain can strip a canyon that looked perfect that morning. And unlike a tide, if you miss it you wait a year. Which is the reason to plan this rather than assume you will get around to it.
WHAT I WOULD TELL YOU TO WEIGH
- Timing beats destination. A neighborhood park at peak beats a famous drive a week early.
- Weather ends it, not the calendar. A hard rain takes leaves off rather than bringing them down.
- The valley runs late. If you only get one window free, take it in early November rather than early October.
- If you are house hunting, do the same trip twice. A street in October and the same street in January say different things about its trees.
Two things worth reading before you plan any of it. I keep every part of the region in one place at the Sacramento neighborhood guide, and the Davis guide covers the arboretum and the rest of that city.
Question for you: if you only get one free afternoon this fall, would you rather walk it or drive it? Those two answers lead to completely different lists, and the second one is usually the wrong choice.
Adapted from Guide to Spotting Fall Color in the Sacramento Area, originally published by Windermere Signature Properties at windermerecalocal.com.
WHEN YOU ARE READY
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