Among the Venerable Bristlecones

I visited the ancient bristlecone pine forest today, in the White Mountains, east of the Sierra and the Owens valley.  This forest has some of the earth's oldest living things...the senior trees here are up to 4600 years old!  They grow in a harsh, cold, dry climate, on rocky slopes of dolomite.  The unfavorable conditions eliminate competition, leaving these tough ol' trees a clear track to survive.  Their wood is very hard, making them highly resistant to fire and disease.  Bristlecone cones start life purple...some are visible in the pic above.  They eventually turn to brown, and the male cones send spores into the air to fertilize female cones and start new trees a'growin'.

It's common to see old trees that are at least half dead.  Some roots have been exposed and that part of the tree dies, but other roots are still doing fine.  The right two thirds of this tree is dead, but the left third lives on, after several millennia no doubt.

The cold, dry, windy conditions endured by the pines sculpts them into fantastic shapes.  A visit here is like a seminar in abstract art.

Very stylish bark on this bristlecone, I reckon.  Sleek lines!

The Lizards dug the bristlecones.  They like any dry, harsh environment.  BTW Lizard has lost his arms due to me tossing stuff on him in the back seat of the car, and I haven't gotten around to gluing them back on yet.  He's broken both arms about 4-5 times in the past seven years so I'm not sure corrective surgery is worth it.

Even the rocks among the bristlecones are distinctive.  This one could be in MOMA.

A classic bristlecone rises above the sage.  A professional photographer and I were both shooting this tree, and we were both very impressed.

Same tree.  The Eastern Sierra is SO COOL!!  I should move over here.  Drove by Mary Austin's home in Independence today...looked like a cozy place in a pleasant neighborhood, and surrounded by such grandeur!

I'm always amused by the people who say Cali is a crowded mess with wall to wall people.  Not everywhere by a long shot.

Serious rain shaft near Big Pine.  I drove through rain for over an hour in the Owens Valley...rare at any time of the year.

Shapes and Scenes in the Sierra

Hangin' out in the eastern Sierra.  This is a large, dry, stark, beautiful land, where the landscape is dramatic.  It's harsh here, and people are few, at least by California standards.  The land is peaceful and majestic.  Here, indian paintbrush thrive alongside sage.  Both are flexible plants...they thrive here, more than ten thousand feet above sea level, in a dry, cold climate, and they prosper near sea level in the benign weather of the Monterey area.

Classic shot of Tenaya Lake, in Yosemite on the Tioga road.  I've loved it here since my first visit in 1977.  Though it's 8000 feet above sea level, the water is wadable, even swimmable...about 70 degrees near the shore.

Whitebark pine needles.

Rocks, reeds, and water at Heart Lake, in the High Sierra.

Long Lake, elevation 10,500 feet.  And no mosquitoes!

The cliff face at Long Lake slowly, steadily breaks up, depositing loose rocks at the bottom.

A wet meadow...with driftwood!  Must have washed down during a flood.

Clouds are massing and glowering over the high peaks.  Thunder rumbled for quite a while...it was nice to listen to it, and hear no other sounds except the wind and rushing water.  It rained lightly but never really cut loose.

Rocks at the bottom of Heart Lake.  Gray, calm days in the Sierra are delightfully pensive.

Billowing clouds over the high peaks.

Mammatus clouds over the whitebark pines.

Rain falling in Mack Lake.

Fireweed.  Also a flexible plant, it thrives from Fairbanks to the Sierra, from sea level to two miles up.