Aw, the serenity of autumn. Pumpkin Spice Lattes are back, I can finally pull my UGG hiking boots out of storage, and I can hike uphill without sweating through every gently thrifted article of clothing I own. Most importantly, it’s finally cool enough that I’m no longer terrified to turn on my oven. Soups, stews, baking—bring on all the cozy fall food. But as much as I love the return of comfort-food season, the best part of autumn will always be that spectacular rainbow of fall colors. Of course, I could stick around home in Big Bear Lake, California, where I spend my days as a hiking and Jeep trail guide. Or I could point the motorhome north, drive five hours up Highway 395 and go looking for God’s glory—and by God’s glory, I obviously mean entire mountainsides covered in flaming red, brilliant orange and golden-yellow aspens. Yeah, each October, this is not a difficult decision for this alpine adventurer. Eastern Sierra, here we come!
If you want to see some of the highest-elevation Eastern Sierra fall colors, places like Lake Sabrina and Sagehen Summit can put on an absolutely ridiculous show around late September and those first few days of early October, depending on the year and the weather. But what happens if you can’t escape work, strap on your hiking boots and head north until the middle of October? Not to worry, Sally from Sherman Oaks. You have not missed autumn. You just need to stop chasing the highest elevations and start following those changing leaves downhill. Eastern Sierra fall colors in October can still be absolutely spectacular, and mid-October is one of my favorite times for an Eastern Sierra leaf-peeping road trip.
Here at Hungry Mountaineer, our family plans an Eastern Sierra escape basically the second the first aspen starts thinking about turning yellow. We load up our beloved 34-foot Fleetwood motorhome—our older yet gently loved home away from home—and lumber north on Highway 395, pretending we are not currently getting 8 miles to the gallon, for as much of autumn as we can possibly squeeze into one holiday. Eventually the nighttime temperatures plummet and snow starts threatening the mountain passes. Even I have to admit that camping in twenty-degree weather because “BUT
LOOK AT THE ASPENS!” has its limits. Until then, you’ll find us exploring Highway 395 fall colors, hiking to alpine lakes, off-roading in the Jeep and generally rearranging our entire lives around some very pretty trees. So consider this the Hungry Mountaineer know-before-you-go guide to finding the best Eastern Sierra fall colors in October, especially after the famous high-country groves have already peaked.
Everyone on Facebook will happily tell you where to go when the Eastern Sierra is at absolute peak color, but nobody tells you what to do when you roll into town on October 15 and your favorite 10,000-foot aspen grove looks like Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree. I’ve been there. I’ve driven all the way up toward Lake Sabrina or Rock Creek Lake a week too late, followed a parade of Cybertruc
ks into the high country and finally arrived only to discover that fall happened above Aspendell last Tuesday. But don’t panic and don’t turn the motorhome around. There are still plenty of places to find late-season Eastern Sierra fall colors, especially when you start exploring different elevations around Mammoth Lakes, June Lake, the Highway 395 corridor and the eastern approaches to the Sierra.
As an outdoor adventure enabler who is blessed enough to spend weeks—and some years nearly the entire autumn—wandering around the Eastern Sierra, I’m here to tell you that the leaf-peeping party is definitely not over just because the high country has dropped its leaves. Some years, gorgeous reds, oranges and yellows linger well into late October, with lower elevations stretching the show even longer. The trick to California fall colors in October is knowing where to look next. So grab the hiking boots, pack some snacks and prepare to follow autumn downhill.
Eastern Sierra Fall Colors in Mid-October: Leaf Peeping After the High Country Peaks
When mid-October 
rolls around, this scenic-route specialist has a few favorite adventures tucked away all around Highway 395, Mammoth Lakes and the Sonora Pass. While half of Instagram is fighting over the same photo underneath the same famous aspen tree, I would much rather disappear down a dirt road, hike several miles uphill and find someplace where the only thing photobombing my fall-color selfie is possibly a golden trout. After many years of adventuring around the Eastern Sierra, this travel blogger has some great secret locations to share. One of my favorite off-the-beaten-path adventures for Eastern Sierra leaf peeping—especially on a weekday—is Leavitt Lake.
Leavitt Lake: Fall Colors Without 4,000 of Your Closest Instagram Friends
Here’s the thing about Leavitt Lake: first, you have to drive most of the way up Sonora Pass to reach the area, and that alone is a gorgeous fall road trip. This lonesome California highway is studded wi
th quaking aspen, cottonwood, and willow lining the river canyons, turning bright gold and orange in the autumn. This part of the Sierra feels delightfully removed from the more famous Highway 395 fall-color stops. In fact, around here you’re likely to see more Marines from the nearby Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center than leaf peepers. And I like it that way. Not in a sweaty Marines kind of way. More in an avoiding AllTrails hikers, selfie sticks and social-media influencers kind of way. But if you need a selfie stick with a tripod and remote control before your leaf-peeping adventure and you absolutely do, this one is great. I love the low center of gravity, so it does not fall over in those gentle fall breezes.
If your vehicle has approximately the same off-road capability as a toaster—I’m looking at you, Tesla—you can park near Highway 108 and hike from there. That turns Leavitt Lake into roughly an eight-mile round-trip adventure with around 2,000 feet of climbing. It’s a serious hike, but you’re heading toward a beautiful high-country lake and some excellent fall fishing, so there are certainly worse ways to spend an October day.
If you’re driving a lifted Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk with actual dirt-road ambitions, however, you can carefully work your way farther up the rough road and shorten the hiking portion. I prefer to park after the creek crossing before the route gets into the kind of serious washouts that make me start thinking about repair bills instead of fall foliage. From there, my version of the hike is closer to six miles round trip. Leavitt Lake is a special place for anglers in the know, and the fall fishing can be fantastic. Throw in crisp mountain air, autumn color and substantially fewer people than the famous Eastern Sierra hot spots, and this is my kind of October adventure.
Laurel Lakes: Come for the Aspens, Stay Because Your Quads No Longer Work
As the self-appointed CEO of stumbling uphill with a backpack full of snacks—I’m looking at you, Southwestern Trail Mix—the Laurel Lakes are another one of my favorite places on the outskirts of Mammoth Lakes for a midweek Easte
rn Sierra fall foliage adventure. Weekends can get a little nutty with the off-road crowd, and not in the delicious way of my Nashville Spicy Hot Trail Mix.
Visit on a Wednesday in mid-October, however, and you may feel like you’ve stumbled across your own private corner of the Sierra.
The Laurel Lakes are much better known among off-roaders, but you don’t technically need a Yamaha side-by-side or a lifted four-wheel-drive vehicle to experience them. You can use the equipment God gave you—your legs—and hike the road instead. The trek can be roughly ten miles round trip, much of it rocky, steep and relentlessly uphill, but the high-elevation scenery, aspen groves and sweeping views back toward Mammoth Lakes make the suffering worthwhile. And if you’re lucky enough to have the place mostly to yourself on a crisp October weekday, this is exactly why I love searching for uncrowded Eastern Sierra fall colors rather than following the masses to whichever lake went viral on Instagram that morning.
Here’s my thing about driving versus hiking to the Laurel Lakes: even if you own a Yamaha Dirt Beast or a trail-conquering lifted Jeep Cherokee, you’re going to be crawling over sections of this road so slowly that eventually I start thinking, Why aren’t I just walking? If I’m going to move at three miles per hour, I might as well be hiking, sweating, burning calories and mentally calculating how much chili I can inhale at Holy Smoke BBQ in Bishop afterward. And believe me, you’re going to earn that chili. This uphill trek can involve around 3,000 feet of elevation gain depending on where you begin, so this is not Sally from Sherman Oaks’s casual pumpkin-spice stroll.
But if you’re fit, prepared and fortunate enough to explore these beautiful off-the-beaten-path lakes, the Laurel Lakes can be a fantastic addition to an Eastern Sierra fall colors in October road trip. The largest lake is the main event, surrounded by that rugged high-country scenery that makes you forget—for at least five minutes—how much you just complained on the climb. The fishing for native brown trout can also be excellent in autumn, which gives you one more excuse to linger beside the lake, admire the changing aspens and congratulate yourself for hiking instead of spending the afternoon bouncing over rocks at walking speed in the Jeep.
That’s Amazzzzzing! A Hidden Aspen Grove Outside Bishop
I hate to sound like Huell Howser here, but the first time you walk into this dramatic hidden aspen grove above Pine Creek Pack Station, y
ou may actually hear yourself exhale, “That’s amaaaaaazing!” And the best part is that you don’t have to hike all the way to Italy Pass to appreciate it. I have never actually made the trek over Italy Pass to Lake Italy, and frankly, I discovered this locals-in-the-know trail many years after my tip-top hiking years. The full adventure into that country is a serious undertaking, while even hiking as far as Pine Lake involves roughly eight miles round trip and around 2,600 feet of climbing. Call that “moderate” if you want, AllTrails. I call it several hours of walking uphill with a lot of foul language while reconsidering how much I really needed to see a secret alpine lake today.
If solitude is part of your idea of perfect Eastern Sierra leaf peeping, however, this area is fantastic. The trail climbs through the historic Pine Creek mining landscape, where iron-rich reddish rock makes the scenery almost as interesting as the sound of your own increasingly dramatic breathing. The higher you climb, the better it gets, but here’s my secret for anyone primarily chasing Eastern Sierra fall colors in Octobe
r: you don’t need to suffer all the way to Pine Lake. Pine Creek Pack Station sits at roughly 7,400 feet, which can make this area a fantastic mid-October option after some of the higher-elevation aspen groves have already peaked. (Looking at you, Bishop Creek)
From the pack-station area, you can take a much shorter wander toward some absolutely gorgeous aspens without committing your entire day—and your quadriceps—to the mountain. In roughly the first mile, you can find yourself surrounded by a ridiculously photogenic grove that’s perfect for frolicking with your favorite vacation pup and taking approximately 472 fall photos. Keep your eyes open for marmots around the pack-station area too. This is one of those late-season Eastern Sierra fall color stops that reminds me why following autumn downhill can be much more rewarding than chasing last week’s peak at 10,000 feet.
Hilton Lakes: That’s Hot. The Aspens, I Mean.
Another fantastic off-the-beaten-path choice for Eastern Sierra fall foliage is Hilton Lakes. Unlike the other Hilton in Del Mar, California,
there is no overflowing toilet, no room service and nobody is bringing you a tiny bottle of shampoo. You do, however, get miles of Sierra wilderness, beautiful autumn color and considerably fewer humans—and frankly, that’s my definition of five-star accommodations.
This is not a quick little leaf-peeping stroll. Depending on exactly how far you explore, you’re looking at roughly eleven to twelve miles for a substantial day hike into the lakes. But that’s exactly why I love it. The small trailhead parking area doesn’t hold many vehicles, and I’ve rarely seen it completely packed. By mid-October, when conditions cooperate, the aspens along this part of the Eastern Sierra can be spectacular. If you’re looking for Eastern Sierra fall colors in October without spending your afternoon in an Instagram conga line, Hilton Lakes deserves a spot on your hiking list. Now, That’s Hot—But Thankfully the Weather Isn’t.
Parker Lake: Come for the Aspens, Dodge the Selfie Sticks
Yes, Parker Lake is gorgeous. And yes, everybody knows it. These aspen groves tucked beneath those dramatic Sierra peaks of Bloody Canyon can put on an incredible mid-October show. And yes, everybody on Instagram knows about it now. Thanks, influencers. What was once one of those deliciously quiet Eastern Sierra treasures has become one of the more recognizable stops for Highway 395 fall colors, which means timing matters. If you can visit midweek, do it. If you arrive on a gorgeous October Saturday at eleven in the morning, welcome to Leaf Peeping Coachella with more Cybertrucks.
The trailhead is reached by a graded dirt road, and this is where people sometimes make the mistake of thinking graded means paved, but beige. Washboard roads can occasionally feel smoother at a moderate, appropriate speed because your 4×4 tires aren’t dropping deeply into every single corrugation, but that absolutely does not mean flooring it across the desert is a good idea, unless you are in a bad-ass Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk; then who is to judge? Just keep a keen e
ye out for mule deer as they are migrating through this time of the season. Road conditions change constantly, and one innocent-looking section can conceal a pothole or rock large enough to turn your Eastern Sierra leaf-peeping vacation into an afternoon discussing suspension components with a mechanic if you even try this in a Chevy Volt.
And then there are the Teslas. Look, I love technology, but low-clearance passenger cars and rocky dirt roads are not exactly peanut butter and jelly. An EV’s battery pack sits beneath the passenger compartment, and although it is protected by structural shielding, a severe impact underneath an electric vehicle can damage the battery enclosure or pack. That’s not the kind of souvenir you want from your fall vacation. And spoiler alert: the nearest Tesla dealership and s
ervice shop from June Lake is in Fresno, about 180 miles southwest. If you’re inching along terrified of what every rock might do to the underside of your car, perhaps this particular dirt-road adventure wasn’t meant for the Audi sports car either. Unless, of course, you’ve been wondering how you could contribute more generously to your mechanic’s vacation fund.
Whatever you’re driving, avoid Parker Lake on peak fall-color weekends if you possibly can. Otherwise, you may find the tiny parking area overflowing with what I affectionately call the Pumpkin Spice Bronco Brigade—weekend leaf peepers spilling out of rented SUVs and parking farther and farther down the dusty road. Congratulations: your hike just received a complimentary bonus mile.
Turn Right and Lose the Influencers: Parker Creek & Walker Lake
Want to explore the Parker Creek and Bloody Canyon area without joining the Parker Lake parade? On the approach to Parker Lake, branch off onto Forest Road 1S23 toward Walker Lake. This is where Eastern Sierra fall colors in mid-October get really fun because instead of hiking toward the same grove everyone has already posted seventeen times on Instagram, you can spend your day exploring a gorgeous backcountry corridor lined with aspens along Parker Creek. This is a much easier drive if you are in a four-wheel-drive vehicle.
Once you step or drive off the beaten path, take your time exploring this wilderness. Stop around the creek and pond areas, wander around, take photos and enjoy the fact that autumn does not actually have to involve a parking attendant. As you continue toward Walker Lake, the road becomes substantially rougher, and this is where I want a capable high-clearance four-wheel-drive vehicle rather than optimism and a rental-car damage waiver. Depending on current road conditions, you can get quite close to Walker Lake and then make your hiking adventure as short or ambitious as you like.
If you are feeling particularly energetic—or temporarily forget how much you dislike climbing—you can continue hiking beyond Walker Lake toward Sardine Lake. That’s when this pleasant autumn outing starts becoming a real Sierra workout. A longer route into Sardine Lake country can turn into roughly a thirteen-mile round-trip day with thousands of feet of elevation gain. Every time I hear about hikes like this, I have the same thought: Why did I not do this when I was younger and my knees still believed in me?
Fern Lake: Hike Half a Mile and Call It Athletic
Here is some excellent news for anyone whose legs are tired of my Eastern Sierra fall-color recommendations involving sever
al thousand feet of climbing: you don’t have to hike all the way to Fern Lake. Fern Lake: Finally, an Aspen Hike for Lazy People. In fact, if fall foliage is your goal, I wouldn’t. The Fern Lake Trail gets steep quickly and gains roughly 1,500 feet on its way toward the lake, but some of the prettiest aspens are down low, within roughly the first half mile. Maximum Aspens, Minimum Suffering
This makes Fern Lake one of my favorite quick hits for mid-October Eastern Sierra leaf peeping. Wander through the lower aspen grove, take your photos, convince everyone on Instagram that you spent twelve hours backpacking through the wilderness and then return to the car while your quadriceps are still speaking to you. From there, cruise around nearby Gull Lake for even more autumn color—and obviously stop at my favorite local thrift storebecause nothing complements a day of wilderness solitude quite like rummaging through somebody else’s gently used treasures.
Lee Vining Canyon: Where the Pavement Ends and the Good Stuff Begins
I absolutely love exploring Lee Vining Canyon in my four-wheel-drive Jeep Trailhawk in mid-October. There are so many little roads, creekside pullouts and hidden pockets of color that you could easily s
pend half a day here accomplishing absolutely nothing except photographing yellow trees—and I consider that a productive vacation. Roads around Lee Vining Creek and the power-plant corridor can provide a gorgeous way to experience Eastern Sierra fall colors in October, especially after the highest elevations have already finished their show.
Naturally, I recommend beginning this adventure with lunch at the world-famous Whoa Nellie Deli, because apparently my version of wilderness exploration requires elk chops. After a delightfully not-that-expensive elk lunch (Only $40! What?) It’s time to explore the Lee Vining Canyon area. From the Tioga Pass Road area, you can explore the dirt roads leading toward Lee Vining Creek and the historic power facilities, stopping wherever it’s legal and safe to wander among the aspens. Last autumn I explored this area just after a storm had dumped nearly a foot of snow, and golden aspens surrounded by fresh white snow were almost offensively beautiful. This is why I keep coming back to the Eastern Sierra every October.
If you continue higher toward Tioga Pass, the scenery remains spectacular, but remember what we’re hunting here: aspens. The higher country transitions increasingly into conifer forest, including lodgepole and whitebark pine habitat, and those elevations generally experience autumn—and winter—a lot sooner. For late-season Eastern Sierra fall colors, I’m much more interested in dropping into the creek corridors and lower canyon than racing toward the highest point on the map.
Does Yosemite Have Fall Colors? Yes. It Also Has People.
Does Yosemite get fall colors? Absolutely. Yosemite Valley can put on a beautiful later-season show, often with black oaks and other deciduous trees adding gold and bronze among all those evergreens. But Yosemite’s fall foliage is a different experience from the enormous glowing aspen groves that make Eastern Sierra leaf peeping so addictive. Much of Yosemite’s forest remains coniferous, so you’re looking
for pockets of color rather than entire mountainsides screaming AUTUMN HAS ARRIVED!
And then there are the crowds. If my October vacation goal is to wander beneath golden leaves while listening to a creek instead of circling a parking lot, I’ll take the quieter side of the Sierra. Give me Highway 395, a dirt road, my Jeep and a grove of aspens without 700 people waiting for exactly the same photograph.
Dunderberg Meadows: Where the Pavement Ends, Autumn Gets Better
If you’re looking for a scenic four-wheel-drive adventure deep in the Eastern Sierra fall colors of mid-October, Dunderberg Meadows is exactly the kind of place I love. Getting there is half the adventure, with backcountry roads winding through open Sierra scenery before suddenly delivering you into brilliant pockets of golden and orange aspens. This isn’t pull over, take three photos and get back on Highway 395 leaf peeping. This is make-a-day-of-it leaf peeping.
Depending on the route you explore, you can easily turn this into roughly eleven miles of backcountry driving, so obviously you need snacks. Pack some homemade Nashville Hot Trail Mix, fill your favorite obnoxiously cute autumn travel mug with pumpkin-spiced coffee and settle in for an afternoon of Eastern Sierra fall foliage and four-wheel-drive shenanigans. Road conditions can change dramatically with storms, so this is one of those adventures where knowing your vehicle—and knowing when to turn around—is substantially more useful than owning a very expensive pair of hiking leggings.
You Don’t Have to Reach Lake Mildred to Win at Fall
I absolutely adore the hike toward Lake Mildred in autumn. Do I necessarily adore hiking all the way to Lake Mildred these days? My knees would like to issue a statement. The complete adventure is roughly ten miles round trip and includes around 2,300 feet of elevation gain, some seriously steep climbing and sections of loose scree that are decidedly not for anyone who discovers halfway up a mountainside that heights are not their thing. The scenery through Convict Canyon is phenomenal, though, with colorful geology towering above Convict Creek and some truly spectacular Eastern Sierra fall foliage tucked into the canyon.
Here’s the secret: you don’t have to hike anywhere near Lake Mildred to make this one of your best Eastern Sierra fall colors in October adventures. Start along the south shore of Convict Lake. Yes, this adds distance, but in mid-October the walk beneath aspens and water birch along that shoreline is absolutely worth the extra mileage. Once you enter Convict Canyon, the crowds begin thinning and the scenery just keeps getting better.
Farther into the canyon, you’ll encounter the creek crossing where the old bridge near the Lake Genevieve outlet is long gone. By autumn, the water can be considerably lower than during spring runoff, but conditions vary tremendously from year to year. This is one place where I absolutely want hiking poles, and I would never assume a crossing is safe simply because it was easy the previous October. If the water looks sketchy, that’s your turnaround point. The aspens don’t require a rescue helicopter to appreciate them.
If conditions are safe and you continue roughly halfway toward Lake Mildred, you’ll reach one of my favorite hidden aspen groves anywhere in the Eastern Sierra. Golden leaves, Convict Creek and those enormous canyon walls make this place absolutely ridiculous in mid-October. You can stop there, congratulate yourself on making an excellent life decision and hike back to the motorhome—or continue toward Lake Mildred if your legs are still feeling ambitious.
And if you’re having one of those rare days when your knees, lungs and questionable sense of adventure all agree, you can continue even farther toward Lake Dorothy. Adding the lake turns this into an even bigger day, but the high-country scenery beneath Red Slate Mountain is spectacular, and autumn trout fishing can give you yet another excuse to stay awhile. That’s what I love about Convict Canyon for late-season Eastern Sierra fall colors: you don’t need to conquer the entire trail to get the reward. Hike as far as your body, the weather and your snack supply allow. The aspens don’t care whether you earned an AllTrails completion badge.
There really is no better place in California to chase fall colors than the Eastern Sierra. Whether you arrive at the beginning of October when the high country is showing off or roll into town in mid-to-late October after those highest elevations have already peaked, ther
e are still incredible aspen groves tucked throughout the mountains, canyons and creek beds. That is what makes Eastern Sierra fall colors in October so much fun—you just keep following autumn downhill. And having a capable four-wheel-drive vehicle definitely helps if you want to leave the pavement behind and discover some of the quieter Eastern Sierra leaf-peeping spots where the Pumpkin Spice Bronco Brigade hasn’t arrived yet.
But wherever your fall-color shenanigans take you, please don’t be a City-It. Pack out every single thing you bring in, stay on established roads and trails, and for the love of all things autumn, do not carve your initials into the beautiful white bark of an aspen tree. I don’t understand why this became a thing. It’s like vaping in the wilderness: nobody asked for it, it doesn’t make you look cool, and now the rest of us have to look at the evidence of your bad decision. Those brilli
ant aspen groves were doing just fine before “BRAD + KAYLEE 4EVER” showed up with a pocketknife.
The Eastern Sierra is one of those extraordinary places that still feels wild, quiet and wonderfully removed from the rest of California, and I’d really like it to stay that way. Practice Leave No Trace, respect wildlife, don’t create new roads or trails, take nothing but approximately 4,700 fall foliage photos, and leave those gorgeous aspens exactly as you found them. That way, when we all come wandering back up Highway 395 next October with our gently thrifted Ugg hiking boots, Jeep Cherokees, and entirely unreasonable quantities of pumpkin-spiced coffee, the Eastern Sierra will still be putting on one hell of an autumn show once again.
From Sunrise to Mulled Wine: A Perfect Eastern Sierra Fall Day;
An Eastern Sierra Fall Day, Hungry Mountaineer Style
The pup and I rolled out of our campsite at six a.m., because apparently even on vacation I am incapable of sleeping in like a normal human being. I brewed espresso right there in the motorhome with my camping electric espresso maker, magically turned it into a pumpkin spice latte and pointed the Jeep north toward Bridgeport. We had nearly two hours of driving ahead of us to reach the trailhead for Emma Lake, but watching the sun come up over Mono County with a hot pumpkin spice latte in my hand and Vacation Dog riding shotgun is pretty much my idea of rush-hour traffic.
It was still crisp and cold when we reached the trailhead, which was exactly what I’d hoped for. We had an entire day of Eastern Sierra fall colors, hiking, four-wheel-drive exploring and snacking our way down Highway 395 planned, so our first adventure needed to be short and sweet. The roughly two-mile hike to Emma Lake was perfect. I had packed a container of my Nashville Hot and Spicy Trail Mix for breakfast and some salmon jerky chews for my extremely high-energy hiking companion, because apparently both of us require snacks as payment for physical activity.
We found ourselves a beautiful spot along the shore of Emma Lake, ate our breakfast and enjoyed one of those quiet fall mornings that remind me exactly why I keep coming back to the Eastern Sierra every October. By the time we started hiking back, the sun was climbing higher and lighting up the autumn landscape. Obviously, a two-mile hike somehow resulted in approximately eighty-seven stops to photograph leaves because Eastern Sierra leaf peeping is less of a hobby and more of a seasonal disorder.
We were back at the Jeep around 9:40, where I performed the traditional Eastern Sierra autumn parking-lot wardrobe change. The puffy layers required at sunrise suddenly felt completely ridiculous now that the October sun was warming things up. Hiking boots back on, snacks reorganized and Vacation Dog loaded into the Jeep, we were headed toward Dunderberg Meadows for some four-wheel-drive fun.
By lunchtime, however, my stomach had officially taken over navigation. We headed south toward Lee Vining because there was absolutely no way I was spending the day this close to the Whoa Nellie Deli without inhaling their famous elk chops. I sat outside with Vacation Dog in their lovely al fresco dining area, happily demolishing lunch while watching tour buses unload passengers dressed head-to-toe in suspiciously brand-new hiking gear. They rushed into the Mobil station and gift shop to stock up on Yosemite souvenirs while Vacation Dog and I quietly watched the spectacle.
I couldn’t help smiling because we knew something they didn’t. Yosemite is magnificent, obviously, but there is so much more wild beauty scattered throughout Mono County. And when you’re chasing Eastern Sierra fall colors in October, some of the most incredible places aren’t inside a national park at all. They’re down an unmarked dirt road, beside a creek, halfway up a mountain or hidden in an aspen grove where you might not see another person all morning. Yosemite can keep the tour buses. I’ll take the Jeep.
After finishing our elk chops—and perhaps doing just a tiny bit more tourist judging—we climbed back into the Jeep and headed for Lee Vining Canyon. We turned onto the back roads near Lee Vining Creek and spent the afternoon slowly off-roading through another spectacular stretch of Highway 395 fall colors. By then, the afternoon sun was hitting the aspens just right, turning the leaves into brilliant shades of yellow and orange. This is the kind of light that makes you stop the Jeep every four minutes because surely this aspen grove is even prettier than the last aspen grove.
By three o’clock, we were finally back on Highway 395 and cruising south toward Bishop. After hiking, off-roading and spending approximately nine hours chasing pretty trees, there was obviously only one responsible dinner choice: barbecue. We stopped at Texas-Style Holy Smoke BBQ in Bishop and picked up enough food to make sure absolutely none of those calories I burned hiking survived the day.
Back at the motorhome that evening, there was nowhere else I wanted to be. The temperature dropped, the campfire was going and I curled up outside with my tablet and a steaming glass of mulled wine while Vacation Dog finally admitted she might possibly be tired. Then came the real work of Eastern Sierra leaf peeping: sorting through nearly 500 photos from one ridiculous, glorious October day.
And that, to me, is the magic of Eastern Sierra fall colors in mid-October. You don’t need to find that one famous grove at precisely 2:37 p.m. on the three days somebody on Facebook declares it “peak.” Follow the colors downhill. Take the dirt road. Hike to the quiet lake. Stop when the aspens look spectacular. Eat the elk chops. Buy the barbecue. Take entirely too many photographs. Then pour yourself something warm beside the campfire and start planning where you’re going to chase those golden leaves tomorrow.
