Fall Coloration - 2013

[Praedura]

Since there's been some talk about fall coloration this year, I thought I'd grab a few shots from around Edmond.
Edmond is going crazy with color right now! I'm sure this is true all across the metro.

Today was absolutely gorgeous outside. Not your typical Halloween day (it's usually pretty chilly).
Clear, sunny skies. Temp about 68 degrees. Awesome! A bit windy, but hey -- this is Oklahoma.

The first few photos are from around the Chimney Hill addition. The rest are from around 15th & Bryant.
My little camera doesn't quite do the views justice -- it was more vivid in person.

[bchris02]

I agree. Is it just me or are the fall colors here more vibrant this year? It's very beautiful, so beautiful I almost feel like I am farther east. Here are a few I snapped on my run tonight.

[soonerguru]

I agree. Is it just me or are the fall colors here more vibrant this year? It's very beautiful, so beautiful I almost feel like I am farther east. Here are a few I snapped on my run tonight.

It's not just you. It's an amazing foliage year. I'm thinking about driving to SE Oklahoma tomorrow just to check it out.

[boscorama]

Seems like autumn gets more beautiful every year, except back in/around 1991 or 92 when we had an early freeze, resulting in a colorless fall. This year is particularly spectacular. This weekend is the time to head to the countryside for the best displays, including leaf covered roads and uncensored sumac. You don't have to go far.

[poe]

Great pics! We're actually enjoying some fall colors in Amarillo, too.

[bluedogok]

We hit the mountains about a week too early to catch the color like we did last year. I guess our wet summer this year gave the trees another week of green.

This was from Main Street in Breckenridge this year.


This was around Independence Pass last year.

[ljbab728]

It's the same where I live near 63rd and Meridian. Unusually vibrant colors this year.

[Praedura]

Seems like autumn gets more beautiful every year, except back in/around 1991 or 92 when we had an early freeze, resulting in a colorless fall. This year is particularly spectacular. This weekend is the time to head to the countryside for the best displays, including leaf covered roads and uncensored sumac. You don't have to go far.

People censor sumac??? That's just not right!

[Praedura]

^ bluedog -- Wow!

[Celebrator]

Yes, I agree. The trees in my own yard are more colorful than they have been in the 5 autumns I have been here! I am loving it.

[soonerguru]

Booked my cabin and taking the family (and dog) to Southeastern Oklahoma tomorrow! Called ahead and they said it's peaking right now down there.

Believe it or not, there are some rare stands of native maple in Western Oklahoma. I saw a golden maple today near Hinton that was spectacular.

The sugar maples, red oaks, black gums, and sweet gums of Southeastern Oklahoma are the real show stoppers, though. Looking forward to it.

[Praedura]

Booked my cabin and taking the family (and dog) to Southeastern Oklahoma tomorrow! Called ahead and they said it's peaking right now down there.

Believe it or not, there are some rare stands of native maple in Western Oklahoma. I saw a golden maple today near Hinton that was spectacular.

The sugar maples, red oaks, black gums, and sweet gums of Southeastern Oklahoma are the real show stoppers, though. Looking forward to it.

Sounds like fun! Be sure to pack a camera and post the results here.

[bluedogok]

The winds from last nights storms finally knocked the leaves off our sugar maples and aspen trees at our house, the sugar maples were a brilliant red. Most everything at higher elevations was already done two weeks ago when we went to Breckenridge again.

SE Oklahoma is a great leaf peeping location, enjoy.

[OKCisOK4me]

We hit the mountains about a week too early to catch the color like we did last year. I guess our wet summer this year gave the trees another week of green.

In 2011, I spent the latter half of October in the Durango area and got some really awesome photos of the trees changing over. Maybe not stunning in a photography sense, but beautiful as compared to here!

[RadicalModerate]

We made the long anticipated "Foliage Cruise" today (the one involving Talimena Skyline Drive). In short, it was breathtaking. I've never seen so much fall color in real life before. I came close once, several years ago, on a trip up to Grove, via Spavinaw, but today's vistas were actually Awesome. And I never use that word on account of very few things are truly even awesome, with a small a. I'm glad that we postponed the trip for a week to give the trees a bit more time to align with my expectations.

The weather was perfect. The sky was clear. The sun was bright. I had my little Nikon CoolPix camera with me. After getting a few nice shots, I realized that what I didn't have were any fresh batteries to replace the ones that exhausted themselves in the camera. Bummer. Fortunately, my wife had a decent camera phone with her and I had about seven or eight exposures left on my old 35mm camera that I brought along just to use up the film.

The road was everything I hoped it would be. The traffic wasn't terribly annoying. I've haven't seen so many motorcycles, singly or in groups, in a long, long time. Heck there were even a few bicycles out today slowing down other vehicles a bit on the uphill part of the hills, but that wasn't the irritation it would normally be because it gave my wife time to take more thru the windshield shots had we not been going that slow.

When I figure out how to post full-sized, yet somewhat scaled down, pictures in here rather than those little "slide-like" affairs that seem to be all I can generate by uploading directly to this site from my laptop or desktop I'll post a few. I already know how to C&P online images, but I haven't yet gotten one of those online picture storage accounts.

After savoring 57 miles of incredible, unspoiled beauty on the Talimena Drive, plus a very nice drive south on 71, from Mena to DeQueen, Arkansas, we are camping tonight at a Best Western in Durant. The place is literally surrounded by a Waffle Shoppe (probably a former Waffle Haus, a KFC, a Church's Fried Chicken, a Billy Simms BBQ and other "dining opportunities" on the other side of the campground that I can't see. I asked the registration clerk, when checking in, what a decent, local, NON CHAIN, restaurant might be. She said that she liked the Mexican Food at a place next to a different hotel just down the road a block or two. We took her suggestion and, although I've been a bit spoiled by the excellent purveyors of that cuisine, here in OKC, I have to say that El Tapatio, next to the Magnolia Inn, was no slouch in the area of tastiness. And economical too! =)

The plan/itinerary for tomorrow is to go west to Ardmore, then all the way up old 77 back home. I have new batteries in the camera and I'm hoping for some nice pholiage photo ops, especially over around Turner Falls.

Oh! Any tips from the photogs in here about the best way to upload decent looking (not "slide-like") photos from a PC? Or even regarding how to most easily transfer pix from a cell phone to a personal computer? Like this one, fer instance . . . =)

[mkjeeves]

We did the skyline drive a week ago Friday followed by a couple of nights at a B & B at Broken Bow. Zero traffic, the trees on the drive were ahead of the rest of the state and spectacular with some of the brightest reds and oranges I have ever seen in Oklahoma.

This morning, now that the trees in the city are beginning to fire up, we did some touring around town with the top down. Chilly but fun! Hope the color and leaves hold on for another week or so, I have a camping trip planned in the SE part of the state next weekend.

[mkjeeves]

As far as hosting images off the site and displaying them on forums, I use imageshack usually. It's free but you will have to register. Then you have to figure out the direct link to the image and put that in the middle of [img][/img].

[mkjeeves]

A couple of phone shots from last weekend. It was mostly overcast and rained Saturday and Sunday.

[soonerguru]

Doing the drive tomorrow. In Broken Bow area relaxing by the fire in our cabin tonight. The maples and sweet gums are freaking electrified with color. May be a day or so past peak. Looking forward to the drive over Kiamichi Mountain tomorrow.

[RadicalModerate]

Behind our campsite, in Durant, following The Drive, is a McDonald's, to complete the "surrounding" thereof, referenced above. =)

And here is a PhoneShot that provides only a tiny glimpse of the actual gorgeousity/Awesomness of but one tiny part of the tip of the metaphorical iceberg of vistas viewed, earlier today.



(and that was taken through the windshield. with a friggin' cellphone. =)

Now . . . Imagine 57 miles of that, equal to or better than, in terms of Natural Beauty. =)

I think Oklahoma is better than simply OK.
(please take into account that part of the 57 miles cited are in Arkansas =)

(And all of that with Sincere Thanks to the OP on this thread for his excellent camera skills, shared once again.)

[mkjeeves]

Here's one more from the drive last week and a non-phone camera.

[RadicalModerate]

I don't know much about "Official" Photo Composition (so my opinion don't matter noways), yet the juxtaposition of colors and textures in the moment captured, above, approach what I consider worthy of the label: "artistic" . . . The beauty of the larger, "Big" picture can be appreciated on its own merits. However, the ability to recognize and capture, in a photograph, the details of which it--that is The Big Picture--is comprised is even more interesting.

Sorry (got all Wordyrambly there) . . . Nice pic. Really. VERY nice pic.

[kevinpate]

RM, I grew up just a wee bit north of there. Lots of recreation and mischief time in the valley to the immediate north (Cedar Lake and Holson Valley) and good times to the south as well, including Tom Hale, then a very small and rustic scout camp, but very much expanded by the time my boys were campers in 01-04, and I'm sure it's still getting better since that time. Beautiful, beautiful country, especially in the fall.

I remember moving home from AR once. I landed a job with a seismic crew that had just come to the area at the same time as my return. As they told me the gig, all my brain could process at first was 'wow, these guys are going to pay me to go spend all day hiking through the woods. There is a God, and he thinks the French have more money than sense." Ok, that last part may have been just me and not God, but at 20, getting paid to go to the woods was just about as awesome a gig as I ever dreamed could be possible. Long hours, but fun near on every day, though later on there was a hornet's nest down in MS I'd just as soon not remember as well as I do. But overall, yeah, good, good times in beautiful countryside.

[RadicalModerate]

Turns out that our campsite in Durant was also surround by a Taco Bell/Long John Silvers, a Chili's and a couple of other chain restaurants.

Thank goodness that I was still savoring the Local Flavor provided by El Tapatio, from the night before, and enjoyed half a (wonderful, nearly Hardeesesque) biscuit with a bit of strawberry jam from the "continental breakfast" offerings provided by our innkeeper. (All kidding aside: you could do a lot worse than the Best Western in Durant. Or any alternative to Best Western, anywhere else, for that matter. =)

Venturing forth from our safe refuge, in search of The Perfect Fall Foliage, we continued our journey, sort of directly west, on 70 (eschewing the opportunities to drive by the Officially Historic Fort Wa****a (to the north, and sans asterickes [sp?]) and a trip down a personal memory lane to the former town of McBride (to the south, near the beaches of Lake Texhoma), home of The Haunted By Wasps Semi-Abandoned Concrete Block Sort of Near the Lake Vacation Domicile upon which I once did some remodeling work so that the roof would properly shed water.

Instead, we took a brief detour to the first non-gated Park Drive to The Shores of Lake Murray (on the east side).
It was even better than I had imagined, in terms of Foliage (and etc.)

Continuing east, and then north, thru Ardmore (as planned), on Historic Route 77, we enjoyed both the geology and the foliage in the vicinity of Turner Falls. (last time I was there was at least 30 years ago. None of the important things have changed. There is today a 24/7/365 Davis PD presence plus a nominal entry fee. I know this because I heard him hollering, through a vehicle-mounted loudspeaker, at some young climbing enthusiasts not to do the same 'climbing the rocks next to the falls' (as I did, the last time I visited the location--and in cowboy boots, btw) on account of there were Signs noting No Lifeguard on Duty, posted next to the pool enclosure dated: Built 1941. Repaired 1994.) It was as amazing, bordering on Awesome, as it has been in the past, plus the colors were good.

Closer to home, the trees still look real good from Purcell (home of Ruby's Motel Café--good old time burger) right on up through Noble and even into Norman, Moore, and Del/MWC.

A few select photos to follow as soon as I figure out the best way to do that. =)
(danged ol' complicated technology . . . )

Is Photobucket superior to Flicker in any meaningful way? =)

Oh! Here's a shot of Turner Falls in November (like, just today):

Not a lot of "coloration, fallwise" . . . yet nice anyways.=)

[kevinpate]

... the opportunities to drive by the Officially Historic Fort Wa****a (to the north, and sans asterickes [sp?]) ...

Your spelling was exactly on point. It's just the granny nanny censor filters on the site here can't handle perfectly appropriate words if somewhere in them lurks a potential naughty word. It's a tad silly that one has to dink around with the name of a famous Fort just to write Fort W..a..s..h..i..t..a in a sentence.


on edit:

I completely agree with you about Ruby's in Purcell.