Fall Color Trivia Question

Ok,

Does anyone know of the furthest Western grove of Apsens in CA? It seems like the majority are on the Eastern slope.

Secondly is there any reason why more Aspens couldn't grow further West? I have read there are even some groves in the the San Bernardino Mountains and Baja California.

Hey maybe I could plant some in the local Mtns.

Derek, I am aware of one very small grove or stand if you will of aspens in the San Berdo mountains. It is near a camping area known as Heartbar off the 138 hwy which is the back way up to Big Bear from the town of Redlands. If you look for the start of the Fish Creek trail in that area, there is a group of aspens very near the trail head. Many years back now I hit that area as many as 6 times a year. As I have found other areas for photo ops I have not been there in at least 5 years now.

I'd like to know what is the furthest Western grove is as well. I was just at "Aspen Grove" that Paul mentioned in the San Bernardino Mtns. this past Sunday taking some portrait images of my nieces. It's fairly small (maybe 40-50 yards in length). The leaves have already peaked and have even fall off the trees in the western end of the grove. I also hear there is a small grove nearby north east of Big Bear Lake along the Arrastre Creek, but I have not been there myself.

Ya, the grove in the San Berdo Mts. is very tiny. As Eric mentioned maybe around 50 yards long. The trips I was making to the area years back now had little to do with the aspen grove. I was shooting typically much further up in Fish Creek. In fact, looking back on my images I only have about 4 from the actual aspen grove. I sure wish there were better locations in So Cal, but I'm afraid it takes the northerly annual treks to get to where the real stuff is.

The furthest west quaking aspen are in Del Norte's Siskiyou Mountains. Not sure if that is a few trees or an actual grove. I drove much of the way up the highway this June on the South Fork of the Smith River. It appears that area is about 5k elevation so that would make sense. There are also a number of aspen locations shown on another map I've seen for higher areas of the Siskiyous that are further north and east.

http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/occform.cgi?taxon=Populus+tremuloides&add_syn=t&oform=html&out_map=t&action=t&cc=DNT

http://www.calflora.org/app/zmapview

Heres the Jepson map of aspens. There's even one reported to exist about 10 miles from Carmel Valley Village. Or it may be some type of variant.

http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/get_county_map.pl?taxon_id=39509&hcode=060bc40506

Warren