Nevada County Life

Memorial Park Fall Color, Grass Valley

I often see articles proclaiming that Grass Valley and Nevada City have some of the best fall color west of the Rocky Mountains and walking through Memorial Park today I can see why people believe that.  The curving road that runs from the park entrance to the tennis courts has trees running along the right hand side and every year these trees put on a spectacular show, as evidenced by the photograph.

Hennessy School Fall Color

Down the road at Hennessy School on South Auburn the tree at the front of the school is putting on its annual show as it changes to a fall red.  

And trees are changing color all the way up South Auburn from downtown Grass Valley to the Ford dealership.

A few days ago we did a small piece on the hiking trails from the Penn Gate entrance to the Empire Mine State Historic Park (SHP) in Grass Valley, Nevada County, California.  But there are other hiking areas in the park too, one of those being the Union Hill trail area.

This area is across the Colfax Highway from the main area of the park including the visitor center, and the best access to the trails is reached by parking right at the top of Gold Hill Drive where there is a small gravel parking area next to a fire gate (keep the gate clear at all times).  There’s a small wooden box next to the gate that may or may not contain trail maps.

A couple of things make this trail area really stand out:

• Elevation.  The trailhead is at around 2700ft and the trails top out at around 2900ft.  Not only does this make for a more strenuous and rewarding hiking experience, it adds variety to the trails and also means that when we get snow in the foothills, this can be one of the places to experience it in Grass Valley, even if the downtown is not receiving snow.
• Loops.  There are a number of trails in the area, and these may be combined in different ways to create a number of overall trails.  Also you cn pick your distance as it were, without having to return on the same trail you walked on the outward leg.
• Solitude.  It never fails to amaze me how few people walk these trails.  If you want to get away from it all but don’t want to drive too far then this can be the place.  Sometimes you can walk the whole area and never see another person.

Rain is expected in Nevada County this weekend starting late friday and tailing off on Saturday, with temperatures dropping off by about ten to fifteen degrees compared to recent days.  Over the mountains snow levels are expected to remain about the mountain passes until the cold front sweeps through, dropping the snow levels to around 6500 ft.

Here’s the current forecast for Grass Valley from NOAA.

Now that the heat of summer is abating in California, it’s definitely time to get out on foot and enjoy some of the sights in Nevada County.  Grass Valley is lucky to have some excellent walking trails in the Empire Mine State Historic park, just to the east of the city.

There are 3 main entrances to the park:

• Visitor center, with ample parking and access to the main exhibits in the park, including the mining museum and Bourne cottage
• The Union Hill trail area, with parking at the end of Gold Hill Drive
• Penn Gate, on East Empire St, which has parking for cars and a separate area for horse trailers

From Penn Gate the well maintained gravel Hardrock trail (more…)

As the temperatures cool in Nevada County its time to do some basic lawn care tasks to help your lawn weather the winter and thrive next year.  Tasks you may want to undertake now include:

• Applying herbicides to broadleaf weeds.
• Correct soil pH.  If your lawn is acidic then apply lime, if alkaline then apply sulphur.
• Remove the thatch from your lawn by raking.
• If the soil is badly compacted then perform core aeration on your lawn.  If need be aerators can be bought or rented.  If you are aerating your lawn you may want to wait to apply lime to it until you have performed the aeration as some studies have shown that lime applied after aeration is 3 times more effective than lime applied before aeration.
• Rake up or vacuum leaves from the lawn so that the lawn does not get smothered over winter.
• Drain the gas tank in the lawn mower after the final mowing of the lawn.  This prevents the gasoline in the tank from turning into a varnish like substance.