Now that we are living just outside Placerville we have a 12 mile commute to the nursery. It takes about 20 minutes if you don’t get stuck behind a big truck or horse trailer. The drive takes us right through 
Marshall Gold Discovery State Park and across the south fork of The American River at Coloma. Once you cross the river you travel up Marshall Road to Garden Valley, about 5.5 miles.
Traveling to Garden Valley you pass through a chaparral region growing on serpentine. Serpentine allows only so many plants to grow, including Toyon, Coyote Brush, and Ceanothus. We don’t have the blue flowering Ceanothus, but a white flowering version. Just as you enter Garden Valley the soil changes and the Cedar and Pine forest begins, about 2000 foot in elevation.
The generally color of fall here is the yellow of the Valley, Black, and Blue Oaks, as well as riverside willows. There are some pinks from the western redbuds and wild pears.
The pictures are of Coloma, crossing the river and the view into the valley on the road to the nursery. The old stone building is the only one left in 
Garden Valley from the 1850’s.