Looking at it this morning as I was leaving...
The black oaks in Cook's meadow (near the Lodge/falls) are doing great, very showy. The ones in El Cap meadow, so-so; not as impressive as some years, but nice. Bigleaf Maples are still showing, but many lost a LOT of leaves in the winds. I was watching for the outstanding show between the Lodge and 3 bros along Northside to see how it had held up, and I passed it before realizing I had passed it. Maybe just the time of day and light, but that section usually is something you can't miss. Mirror lake (almost) loop before the winds was nice, but not as showy as last year, missing a lot of the reds from the dogwoods...I don't know if they're just late, or just not showing off so much this year. I don't know about after the winds, didn't go back up there. There are still sporadic bigleaf maples up the trails out of the valley with lots of color (oddly, some were showing color in late September on the JMT below Nevada Fall).
Birches and cottonwoods, aspen, whatever along the river are pretty sparse, still trees here and there that show a lot of color, but many that are looking bare. There may be some nice color still west of the swinging bridge.
As far as the dogwoods in the valley, I sure didn't see much color in comparison to past years, but maybe I just missed looking in the right places. I looked in the usual places, and any red color was slim pickens. The canopy over the bike path past Ahwahnee meadow even lacked its usual glow. Many still have their leaves but not much color, but some are decently showy (Happy Isles and elsewhere). Fern spring area is less colorful than usual, but the yellow maple leaves are like a carpet, so it is still a pleasant sight.
Anyway, the weather is back to great, so might as well get up there and see for yourself.
Gary
Yosemite Photo Galleries: http://www.pbase.com/roberthouse/yo
