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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.

Writing on sign: “Reluctance to Die: This 3000 year old remnant has been dead for 250 years. It has two buttresses. The one on the left died about 1100 A.D., the other continuing to grow for six more centuries. This great reluctance to die is common among bristlecone pines; they may cling to life for centuries after reaching old age. Born 1300 B.C. Died: 1700 A.D.”
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.
Especially beautiful! I love those gnarly trees! Great light and color.
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Thanks Judy!
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WOW!!!! Stunning images, Neihtn!!! ❤
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Thanks Amy!
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Wow, such beautiful ‘immortal’ trees, thanks for sharing, hien.
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Thank you!
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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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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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What beautifully expressive trees these are, Hien!
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Lois, your characterization is perfect: beautiful and expressive. Too bad we can’t see them below 5000 ft.
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I so enjoy reading and learning abut the B Pine! They ate magnificent and majestic.
8000 yrs old, wow!!!
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Thanks Amy. Make sure to go and see them on one of your future trips.
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Wow! These pines are very special!
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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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Beautiful photos and trees.
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Thank you Katelon!
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I simply adore bristlecone pines. Wonderful photos of them.
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Thanks Cee! They are great creations of nature.
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gratitude for sharing
beautiful imagery
of this wondrous place 🙂
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Thank you for visiting and commenting! Glad you like the photos.
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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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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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