By John Metcalfe
The Mercury News

SAN JOSE, Calif.—If Vermont has leaf peepers, what does California have? Redwood watchers? Cactus contemplators?

It turns out you don’t need to fumble with semantics. California has leaf peepers, too, they’re just working on a more subtle level. And similar to the later months of the year on the East Coast, you’ll find them out in force right now basking in the vast changing of colors: from summer’s green to brilliant yellows, electric blues, deep purples, and lipstick reds.

Folks who don’t notice the West’s seasonal color shift are “not looking very hard,” says Lara Kaylor of CaliforniaFallColor.com (motto: “Autumn Happens Here, Too”).

Kaylor is the website’s self-described “Leaf Peeper in Charge” who manages a network of 100-plus “color spotters” sending in tips from all over California. (Become one by emailing editor@californiafallcolor.com.) From the gold of quaking aspens in the mountains to the blush of a mushroom poking through forest duff, she maintains an up-to-date log of fall displays in California, so hikers and photographers can plan leaf-peeping trips.

“It’s a very, very different type of fall color. It really is not an apples-to-apples comparison” to other places in the U.S., says Kaylor. “On the East Coast, you’re driving down the highway and it’s just swaths and swaths of trees. Fall color in California is more like sections of color. And a lot of times they’re set up against dramatic landscapes, like around a lake by a mountainous backdrop.”

Generally speaking, trees in Northern California begin changing color at the end of summer in the higher locations first. From the mountains the change trickles down to lower regions, descending at a rate of 500-1,000 feet a week. By November, fall color has spread to the flatlands and coast and also to vineyards, which are innumerable but often forgotten.

Timing depends on a few things, like the temperature and precipitation from as far back as a year ago. “Our winter and spring was near-average to average for 2024 to ’25,” she says. “So we’re expecting things to be pretty much on track this year.”

Ready to get out and start peepin’? (Please don’t phrase it that way if you run into the police.) Here are a few tips that might prove helpful.

Just like zoos are concentrated displays of animal diversity, arboretums and botanical gardens are prime spots to see many types of plants undergo transformations.

“The University of California’s Botanical Garden in Berkeley is a great place to see fall color starting in October and November, depending on the weather,” says Holly Forbes, a recently retired curator for the garden. “The Asian Collection is especially nice with maples and dogwoods, among many other plants with fall color. The Eastern North American and Mexican/Central American collections also offer fall color shows.”

In the South Bay, there’s plenty to observe during changing seasons. “If you just use all of your senses while you’re out in nature, there’s a lot to take in,” says Leigh Ann Gessner, public affairs specialist for the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.

With 25 open-space preserves throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains area, and 250 miles of trails, Midpen delivers a full-force fire hose of autumn’s glory. (It also offers fall-themed outings with volunteer naturalists, to offer the public deeper connections with nature; check the schedule at openspace.org).

“Birds migrate through our area or to our area to overwinter, and fall is a really great time to look and listen for them,” says Gessner. “You can even notice how the angle of the light shifts as the season is changing, and the sky seems a deeper blue. And just a different smell flutters around you—either on a warm fall afternoon, or even after some of those first rains, you’ll have some really rich smells.”

The Bay Area’s natural color palette: What to look for and where to go

Red

• Some of the loveliest fall displays are put on by pickleweed (Salicornia), a low-lying succulent that thrives in salt-marsh habitats. This plant turns bright red as the season shifts. It’s an important food source for the Bay Area’s endangered (and cute) salt-marsh harvest mouse.


•  A showy plant is toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) which has red berries in December. They look like cinnamon Red Hot candies clustered on branches. A scenic place to admire them is on Summit Road leading to the top of Mt. Diablo.


• Hollyleaf redberry (Rhamnus ilicifolia) fruits in September through November. They are little globules of bright red and are often found in higher-up locations.


• California fuchsia (Epilobium canum) blooms can be found through December. They’re native to the California foothills and coastal areas and look like garish trumpets—thin tubes expanding into vibrant-red mouths. They’re also called Hummingbird Flowers, because the birds can’t get enough of them.

Crimson-Purple

• •Grape leaves transition to orange, fiery red and even purple before the vines go dormant for winter. Napa and Sonoma and other wine-making regions are the obvious picks for peeping them. But the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District has its own remnant vines preserved as public attractions.


• “One that comes to mind is Bear Creek Redwoods Preserve, which is in the South Bay near Los Gatos,” says Gessner. “Before it was a public open space, it was a place where people went to study to become Catholic priests. They made wine, so they grew grapes out there. And we have an arbor with some of the wine grapes on it from that time (in the 1930s-1950s).”


• And crimson hues are found everywhere in the Bay Area thanks to a plant you should admire from afar: poison oak. “Some of the most striking fall colors are displayed by poison oak, which turns pink and brilliant red in the fall—and makes the itchy plant much easier to pick out from its neighbors,” says Gessner. “Despite its bad reputation, poison-oak berries are a great food source for native birds migrating south for winter, and the plant is very pretty to look at.”

Yellow

• One of the few native trees in the region that provides “classic” fall colors is the bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum). The leaves turn yellow and gold in the autumn, and some get as big as dinner plates. Bigleaf maples thrive in moist conditions like creek corridors and among redwoods.


• Ginkgo trees, aside from being a source of stinky nuts, undergo a seasonal yellowing that some refer to as “Golden Week.” They’re well-adapted to urban environments and often are planted as street trees. You’ll find clusters of them from Oakland to Mountain View to Alameda, where locals call the carpets of wind-blown leaves “Alameda snow.” (It’s the one time you’ll want to play in yellow snow.)


• Ready for something completely different? Heermann’s Tarweed is only found in California and has yellow, fractal-like blooms that last into November. The plant is sticky to the touch and smells like pine resin and cocoa butter. Fun fact: It was named for naturalist Adolphus Lewis Heermann, who perished while hunting after stumbling and shooting himself with a rifle.

White

• Many plants have quiet explosions of white blossoms in cold weather. Coyote brush (Baccharis pilularis) produces white to cream-colored flowers, and the seeds later puff up into furry masses to give the bush an animalistic appearance. You can find these all over but especially in the East Bay.


• Coast silk tassel (Garrya elliptica) blooms in January with white flowers hanging down in clusters that look like strings of garland. It’s quite pretty—like a living version of winter icicles. Look for these around Mt. Diablo and in the Berkeley Hills.


• Milkmaids (Cardamine californica) are another early bloomer starting in January and continuing into spring, depending where they grow. They are small and white and look like lost stars. They grow all over, with many sightings in the North Bay around Mount Tam.

Living Colors

• The hilly East Bay is prime habitat for colorful birds. “We have scrub jays with their blue feathers, and acorn woodpeckers with a splash of red on their heads,” says Sharon Peterson, an interpreter at Mount Diablo State Park. “They have a red-and-black patch on the back of their head, and are very vocal and live in family communities. They have kind of funny faces.”


• Monterey Bay sometimes sees orange-and-black monarch butterflies migrating at the end of the year. The city of Pacific Grove—nickname, “Butterfly Town, USA”—maintains a Monarch Grove Sanctuary to host these beautiful, endangered creatures. Monarch season there typically reaches a peak from November to January.


• Bulging masses of insects might or might not be cute, but they are undeniably colorful. During the winter, groups of ladybugs (technically known as “lovelies”) can be found huddled for warmth and six-legged company in many regional parks. A famous one is Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park in Oakland, where the bugs like to convene (probably following last year’s pheromones) at the intersection of the Stream and Prince trails.


• An uncommon color in nature—electric blue—is stirred up in local waters thanks to bioluminescent plankton. Though it tends to appear with more force during warmer months, this Aurora Borealis of the ocean can be observed well into fall. Outfitters rent kayaks to observe the phenomenon from above, with fish and seals making trails of pale fire in the water. (To name a couple, there’s Blue Waters Kayaking near Tomales Bay and Kayak Connection near Monterey.)

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