Fall foliage frustration

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Why is it that whenever I pack up my camera gear and head out to capture some fall foliage photos (yes, I head out in the fall) I find no fall colors?  Or, the ones that I do find have a bunch of crap in the foreground or background polluting up my scene?  Today was one such adventure.  It’s the second week of November and rain is just around the corner so I drove for two hours in search of the elusive blazing red tree nestled between some orange, yellow and the other hues of the season but found nothing.  I know, your probably thinking “this guy doesn’t know what he’s doing, or where to go”.  Not true.  The best place to capture the splendors of fall, we can agree, is the mid western United States.  Well, I live in California, so I go where the color is in my state.  I headed up to Auburn State Recreational Area just north/east of Sacramento.  There were some brilliant red tree’s in the town of Auburn, but by the time I spotted them I was  merging onto the highway to head home and the camera was packed away.  Besides, who wants a shot of a fire read tree with a Kentucky Fried Chicken drive through window directly behind it?  Not me.

At the end of the day I had no fall foliage photos but plenty of rocks.  Rocks?  Who the hell said anything about rocks?  I spent $20 in gas and an entire day (one of only two that I have off of work) and got 98 photos of rocks?  Don’t get me wrong, I like rocks just as much as the next guy, and OK, they’re pretty cool rocks.  I will likely mount and frame one of the photos for my home, but I wanted fall foliage photos, not a bunch of rocks. 

 If anyone out there knows Central and Northern California and can educate me on the when and where to find the most spectacular fall color in this state, please comment on my blog and let me know.