Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest
Pine forests abound in the Sierra, but this is no ordinary pine forest, nor are these ordinary pines. Nestled in two main groves in the White Mountains live millennial members of the Great Basin bristlecone pine, pinus longaeva. In the Schulman Grove, at an altitude of 10,000 feet, the bristlecones are often inconspicuously scattered among more common pine species. At the Patriarch Grove, a thousand feet higher in elevation, the trees stand peerless in the windswept landscape of a mountain range that is the handiwork of long extinct volcanism.
What does it take for a tree to live for millennia? How is it that a long-dead tree still stands tall, its bark as strong as the last day it drew precious water from the arid soil after thousands of years have gone by? Whether it’s because of the tough, resinous wood of the trees, the lack of moisture in the soil, or the resistance of this species to rot, the trees survive where few other species can. The oldest living specimen, named Methuselah, is well over 4,800 years old, and is well hidden from view by the fact that it is one of the least alluring samples of bristlecone pine one meets on any of the hiking trails through the groves.
Northbound on the US 395, just past Big Pine and accelerating away from its glacial speed limit, a perhaps unexpectedly sharp right turn, a sinuous road perfect for my Camaro but often as narrow as one lane, and buckets of patience when said road is shared with the lumbering forms of RVs, and you arrive at the Schulman Grove Visitor Center. And, while I will never subject anything but a rugged SUV to the treacherous thirteen miles to the Patriarch Grove, that’s where our journey of discovery begins.
Read MoreWhat does it take for a tree to live for millennia? How is it that a long-dead tree still stands tall, its bark as strong as the last day it drew precious water from the arid soil after thousands of years have gone by? Whether it’s because of the tough, resinous wood of the trees, the lack of moisture in the soil, or the resistance of this species to rot, the trees survive where few other species can. The oldest living specimen, named Methuselah, is well over 4,800 years old, and is well hidden from view by the fact that it is one of the least alluring samples of bristlecone pine one meets on any of the hiking trails through the groves.
Northbound on the US 395, just past Big Pine and accelerating away from its glacial speed limit, a perhaps unexpectedly sharp right turn, a sinuous road perfect for my Camaro but often as narrow as one lane, and buckets of patience when said road is shared with the lumbering forms of RVs, and you arrive at the Schulman Grove Visitor Center. And, while I will never subject anything but a rugged SUV to the treacherous thirteen miles to the Patriarch Grove, that’s where our journey of discovery begins.
