Picture of the week

Memory of Light

A an ancient bristlecone pine within the Schluman Grove of the White Mountains of California. 

The trees found here are considered the oldest on the planet.  This is one of my favorite locations, visiting the area again this last week just ahead of the winter storms that will close the road off for the season.  The tree above was found on the 4.5 mile trail loop out of the Schluman Grove where the secret Methuselah tree is located that is estimated to have an age of over 4800 years (and until recently considered the oldest).  It is an interesting exercise while hiking this trail to try to guess which one of the hundreds of trees along this trail might be the one. There is a short, but informative blog one can learn more about these trees here. 

Given an elevation just above 10,000 feet, the environment here can get quite harsh.  Ironically it is this harshness that helps contribute to these trees long life, allowing them to out survive other competitors or parasitic insects.

Further another 13 miles up at the end of the dirt road at about 11,300 feet is the Patriarch Grove.  Some of the photos shown below were captured from that area on the same day.  Here you will find more majestic trees including the largest bristlecone known as the Patriarch Tree (see the 11th photo).  The weather here is even more extreme, being colder and windier. It is amazing to see such plant life survive in what seems to be such an inhospitable environment.  On the drive up this road a dark colored wild horse was also spied on one of the ridges in the distance.  Reading about this later, apparently this particular lone horse has been roaming this area for the last 20 years!