ANCIENT BRISTLECONE PINE FOREST

The Methuselah Grove in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest is the location of the "Methuselah", a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine more than 4,750 years old. This is 1,000 years older than any other tree in the world. "Methuselah" is not marked in the forest, to ensure added protection from vandals.

The Great Basin Bristlecone Pine and the Limber Pine are the only two trees able to survive the harsh environmental conditions in the White Mountains.  We believe the above photo is a Great Basin Bristlcone Pine and the one below is a Limber Pine but it is hard to say for sure when they are younger trees. (we could be totally wrong)

The Bristlecone Pines roots grow close to the surface. Generally the ones where you see the bare, trunk those are the Britlecone Pines for sure. They no longer mark them because of vandalism in 2008 but we do remember them being marked the last time we were here. Just when you think you are looking at a dead tree you will see it still has live branches on it! 

It amazes me to see trees that have been alive since Jesus walked the earth. We have been to this forest before when the kids were younger but it has been a long time so we decided to include this in our trip this year to Mammoth Lakes just like we did Bodie this year. So we left early on the day we were heading home and stopped here along the way.

Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest is off of US Hwy 395 you turn east onto State Hwy 168 which is just north of Big Pine. Follow Hwy 168 east 13 miles to White Mountain Road. Turn left (north) and drive 10 miles to the Schulman Grove Visitor Center which is a dirt road. This drive takes you from about 3,000 ft up to 10,000 ft elevation! The Bristlecone pines can be viewed from the parking area of the visitor center and along three nature trails. 

A view on the way down....

I'm going to link up Sunday with....

 

A SAMPLING OF OUR VACATION

As you can see by the first collage photo I took a lot of pictures. I am working on picking out my favorites to share with you. I can't post each one but I'm sure you will enjoy my favorites. I made a few collage photos of some miscellaneous things I thought I could share with you now. (click to enlarge)

Our ice in the freezer went a little crazy. Sun through the window made the lampshade look like a spider. A pine cone in front of the cabin which did find its way into my suitcase. We played scrabble every night and of course had some wine. Enjoyed my lemon water too! 

A few of the things we cooked while we were there. Mark is a great egg maker so he made breakfast and I did the dishes. He use to make the eggs for breakfast in the cafeteria at college.

A few pictures from Bodie State Historic Park. I have a lot of pictures to share and these seemed to work well being put into a collage. Inside one of the houses that they have open for viewing. Just love the different flooring's that were used over the years. 

I really was mesmerized by the windows. They were super thin and looked like ice. I love what I captured in the middle window. 

 We even saw some ghosts in one window :)

There was a never ending supply of miscellaneous items everywhere! 

I loved looking in the windows too!
I have about 40 photos I want to share.
I will most likely do two posts for Bodie.

 A few flowers that captured my attention. 

While fishing one day on Lake Mary we had dozens of butterflies flying around us. These guys were super tiny as you can see next to the pebbles.

I am really excited to show you the individual photos from our trip. We have a few from the Mammoth Lakes area, Bodie and we also have a few from Bristlecone Pine plus all the information about these places. 

I'll be back!