Yesterday I drove Oregon Highway 58 up into the central western Cascade Mountains and found that the fall color is fantastic right now. Plenty of golden bigleaf maple and vine maples with foliage ranging from lemony yellow to reddish-orange. The autumn color is great all the way from Lookout Point Reservoir up to Salt Creek Tunnel, just west of Willamette Pass. Google Map
This part of the Willamette National Forest ranges from about 1000′ to 4000′ elevation, and based on what I saw, I’d guess the areas of similar elevation in the western Cascades have similar conditions. I hope to travel Aufderheide Memorial Drive (West Cascades National Scenic Byway) and to visit Silver Falls State Park, two of the best places for fall color in central western Oregon, in the next week.
I also visited Salt Creek Falls and hiked the Diamond Creek Falls Trail. Almost no fall color in that area, but there are plenty of mushrooms. I probably saw a dozen species of fungi along the Diamond Creek Falls Trail. One of these days I’m going to learn to reliably ID the edible ones!
