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Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, bristlecone pine, Great Basin National Park, photography, postaday, road trip
Bristlecone Pines are trees that live at high elevations, as high as 11,200 ft (3,400 m), in extremely harsh conditions with little rainfall, and can be thousands of years old. The two oldest trees are 5,065 and 4,847 years old, and their exact locations in the White Mountains of California are kept secret to prevent damage from vandals.
We saw Bristlecone Pines at the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in Inyo county in California and at Great Basin National Park in Nevada. Both locations required arduous hikes, especially at Great Basin where the trail kept going up and up the slope of Mt Washington for 1.3 miles! However, it was all worth it.
While hiking the Discovery Trail at Schulman Grove, I saw a group of Japanese making a clothing commercial under a Bristlecone Pine.
At Great Basin National Park the Interpretive Trail at Bristlecone Pine Grove had signs explaining how the trees grew and died.
Bristlecone Pines do not hold the record for the oldest living trees. That honor belongs to a group of aspen trees cloned from a single tree, known as Pando or The Trembling Giant near Fish Lake in Utah. The clonal colony covers 106 acres (43 hectares), contains 40,000 trunks, all cloned from the same original tree. Its roots are estimated to be 80,000 years old.
Judy said:
Especially beautiful! I love those gnarly trees! Great light and color.
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neihtn2012 said:
Thanks Judy!
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AmyRose🌹 said:
WOW!!!! Stunning images, Neihtn!!! ❤
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neihtn2012 said:
Thanks Amy!
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ken and agnes photoworks said:
Wow, such beautiful ‘immortal’ trees, thanks for sharing, hien.
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neihtn2012 said:
Thank you!
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Celia said:
Wow, these trees are truly amazing. The tree formation in last photo especially looks like lava flow. Thanks for enduring the hard hike and sharing this place with us!
Have you visited the White Mountains of California as well?
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neihtn2012 said:
I did visit the White Mountains and wrote this post: https://neihtn.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/ancient-bristlecone-pine-forest/
Thank you Celia for visiting and commenting!
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loisajay said:
What beautifully expressive trees these are, Hien!
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neihtn2012 said:
Lois, your characterization is perfect: beautiful and expressive. Too bad we can’t see them below 5000 ft.
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Amy said:
I so enjoy reading and learning abut the B Pine! They ate magnificent and majestic.
8000 yrs old, wow!!!
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neihtn2012 said:
Thanks Amy. Make sure to go and see them on one of your future trips.
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Tiny said:
Wow! These pines are very special!
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neihtn2012 said:
Thank you Tiny. They are special indeed, especially when you see them in their rocky environment where very little else can survive.
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katelon said:
Beautiful photos and trees.
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neihtn2012 said:
Thank you Katelon!
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Cee Neuner said:
I simply adore bristlecone pines. Wonderful photos of them.
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neihtn2012 said:
Thanks Cee! They are great creations of nature.
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smilecalm said:
gratitude for sharing
beautiful imagery
of this wondrous place 🙂
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neihtn2012 said:
Thank you for visiting and commenting! Glad you like the photos.
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DG MARYOGA said:
That’s nature’s Art Hien!Magnificent photos,captivating illustrations!Some Buttress and Aerial roots are out of the ordinary,they do touch Art levels 🙂
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neihtn2012 said:
I share your enthusiasm, Doda, and wanted to dedicate a separate post to these trees. We lowlanders never see them around us and it is good to know they have managed to survive in their harsh environment for thousands of years.
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