The trail junction at the top of the LIttle Yosemite Valley Trail. It heads right from where the group is standing. Ahead, the walls above Pine Creek, crowned by Castle Rock. And yes, the light this morning really did have the yellow cast showing here.

On the Little Yosemite Valley trail on the way down. Here, and elsewhere, the buckeye leaves are all down, but the nuts are mostly still on the trees. Not for long though: the husks are beginning to open.

Down in Pine Canyon, about at my northern extreme. It's all sandstone down here, and there are some small wind caves.

A very nice big leaf maple on the trail along Pine Creek. Lots and lots of these with this nice mix of green, yellow, and brown were showing off down here.

A big leaf maple leaf close up from a little later in the hike.

I had lunch down here on a bench overlooking the cliffs on the far side. This block is the at the far left on the picture at the beginning of this gallery.

Lots of climbers on that cliff face. (This climber was present when I took the previous shot. This one was taken about an hour later.)

Vitis californica. They canyon is full of wild California grape. This has to be the champion grape vine. It's a fair fight: it's wrapping around an oak.

Vitis californica (California grape). Lots of leaves, but not many fruits on these vines today.

The Little Yosemite picnic area. This year's grass cover look a whole lot more cropped than when the Montclair Hiking Club ate here last autumn. Not as much color this year either.

Ptelea crenulata. There were a few remnant hop tree leaves.

Down the trail a little ways was this young buckeye with no nuts but a few brown leaves still hanging on.

The glory of the canyon today were the grape leaves. Most were yellow, as here. Almost no orange as in 2017 -- will these yellows turn into oranges in a week or two?

Some reds.

And at one spot, even some purples.

Put swaths of grape leaves next to a dark hillside, sprinkle in some big leaf maple, and the result is almost like confetti. BIG confetti.

More fine big leaf maples. Pine Creek was a popular place for all kinds of pursuits today.

What else? Blackberries can get into the color act, although only a few were showy today.

Snowberries lined the trail in places, but there was neither much color nor much fruit. I saw many more berries, and larger ones, at Las Trampas two weeks ago. A few plants had a bit of yellow, but snowberries drop their leaves without producing much of a show.

Populus fremontii (Fremont's cottonwood) just below the remnants of Pine Pond. There's a little yellow in those leaves.

Toxicodendron diversilobum (poison oak) has great fall color, but its leaves were almost all down. I had to search (carefully) to find these.

Salix sp. Willows ranged from mostly green to almost all yellow, as was the case with these.

Toyon on the Dusty Road. No leaf color on these evergreens, but berry color is beginning. The toyons down along Pine Creek still had green berries but a few on the slopes higher up along the Dusty Road showed some red. These will be more brightly colored in a week or two if the birds don't feast on the crop.