Seriously Old Trees

Looking across the Owens Valley to the Sierra Nevada from the White Mountains

The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest is about an hour and a half drive south and east from Mammoth Lakes.  The Owens Valley separates the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the west from the White Mountains which are on the very western edge of the Great Basin Desert.  Our drive from Mammoth Lakes was a study in contrast, taking us from the snow of the high Sierras through the arid Owens Valley and into the alpine desert climate of the White Mountains.

 

Bristlecone Pines growing on steep slopes in poor, rocky soil

 

At first glance these harsh conditions of high altitude, poor soil, little precipitation and extreme exposure to ice, wind and heat seem the most unlikely place to find the oldest living trees on earth.  But the Bristlecones have survived here for more than 40 centuries, exceeding the oldest living giant sequoia trees by over 1,500 years.  That makes the Bristlecone Pines older than the pyramids, some of them being aged at over 4,500 years!

Living wood and exposed dead wood create the beautiful multi colors
of the fantastically sculpted trees

 

Smaller first year cone (notice the bristles) and
second year cone which has already opened and dispersed seeds

So what is the Bristlecone’s secret to such great longevity?  Great adversity it would seem.  (Maybe there is a lesson in that somewhere…)  To find out the answer to this mystery David, Maya and I took the Methuselah Walk, a 4.5 mile trail through the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, past the oldest known living tree in the world.  What an amazing time we had!  These trees are just awe-inspiring – sculpted by the elements, battered by nature.  

 

In the Methuselah Grove

The Methuselah tree is not signed for its protection
Somewhere in the grove is the oldest living tree in the world
and it is over 4,700 years old.  Maybe this one is it?

The first thing we learned was that the nutrient-poor and highly alkaline dolomite soil of the White Mountains is actually a good thing for the Bristlecone Pine.  Not many plants can tolerate this poor soil so the slow growing Bristlecone has a chance to grow nearly competition-free.  Thriving in this thin soil some Bristlecone pines even seem to sprout from boulders.

Standing snags and living trees

 

Because the Bristlecone is so slow growing and has such limited resources in this harsh environment, its growth rings are thin.  A one inch thickness of growth may take a century or even more to accomplish.  This makes very dense wood and is another of the Bristlecone’s secrets to survival – hard, disease resistant wood.  Even when a tree does die, a snag may stand thousands of years before it falls.  This is one of the reasons the Bristlecone Pine is so important to scientists.   Pieces of wood over 11,000 years old have been found.  The tree ring patterns can be matched to other pieces and eventually to a living tree.  From these patterns scientists can date the tree ring samples.  Much has been learned about past climates from the tree rings.

 

Part of the tree has been 'sacrificed' for the rest of
the tree to continue to live and grow

 

One of the most amazing things about the Bristlecone Pines besides their great age is the contorted shapes many of them take.  Extreme exposure to the elements causes a lot of the distortion but the way the tree adapts to this exposure is another factor.  The Bristlecone has ‘learned’ to make sacrifices in order to keep itself alive.   If a root is killed by erosion, disease or drought or lighting strikes part of the tree, the Bristlecone will die-back.  It will sacrifice branches or even part of its trunk so that the tree can continue to live.  This makes for very interesting trunks composed of partially living, partially dead tissue.  And for some very old gnarly trees!  Just remember the Bristlecone as you age – gnarly can be beautiful.




David and Maya by the trunk of The Patriarch, the largest Bristlecone Pine

And here's the whole tree!

After our walk among the ‘Methuselahs’ we took a 12-mile dirt road up a few thousand more feet to the Patriarch Grove.  We arrived there in late afternoon just in time for a walk to the largest but not the oldest of the Bristlecone Pines, the Patriarch.  The growing conditions and precipitation in this area of the forest are a little better and the trees grow faster here.  Although the trees are only 3,000 – 4,000 years old in the Patriarch Grove, they are still battered by the elements.  Their twisted shapes in the late afternoon sun made for a beautiful walk and some nice photos too.  We arrived back in Mammoth Lakes well after dark and went right to bed, but what a great day...

Maya does her 'Lassie' interpretation
An episode of Lassie was filmed in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in 1965

 

David's Stats:
Days Hiked     1 
Total Miles Hiked  7.03 
Total Elevation Gain     1,071 

 

 Some wildflowers of the White Mountains

Mat Buckwheat
grows from silver mat and turns from yellow to red as the flower matures

 

Sulphur-throated  forget-me-not

 

Lakes and Snow...



Lake George in the Mammoth Lake Basin

 After a spectacular drive through Yosemite National Park, we arrived at Mammoth Lakes on Memorial Day afternoon.  Most of the campgrounds in the Mammoth Lake area don’t open until mid or even late June.  So we stopped at the Inyo National Forest Visitor Center to see what was available and pick up maps of the area.  We had plans for some serious hiking. 

 

Arrow Head Lake

 

Twin Lakes Campground in the Mammoth Lakes Basin fit our needs perfectly.  Being a very desirable location on two lakes with a waterfall, Twin Lakes is often completely booked.  But most everyone had left after the holiday and we had no problem getting a lovely site.  (It is so nice to be able to arrive after the crowds have gone home and back to work.)  Because we were away from town and down in the lake basin, it meant little or no phone and Internet but that’s a price we are willing to pay for the remoteness and beauty. 

 

The next several days were spent hiking in the Inyo National Forest and the John Muir Wilderness.  “Inyo” is a Paiute Indian word meaning “Dwelling Place of the Great Spirit” and we think the Paiute could be right about that.  I know my spirit was happy to dwell there for a short while. 

 

TJ Lake and reflections of the Sierra Nevada

 

Mammoth Lakes is aptly named – there are lakes everywhere and a Mammoth Mountain!  Almost every hiking trail went to a lake or two or three.  The lakes nearest the campgrounds were full of people fishing and catching, too.  We didn’t take the time to fish but we probably should have as this area is known for great trout.

 

Maya loves snow!

 

Once we left the campground area and headed up the trails we quickly ran into snow.  At first it was just drifts in the shaded areas but above 8,000 feet there was more and more snow making it difficult to follow the trail in places.  We had a few wrong turns because the snow obscured the trail.  Snow hiking is not something we have done a lot of and we developed a new appreciation for finding the trail in snow. 
 



There is a trail here somewhere...

 

In the morning the snow was hard and in most places easy to walk across but as the day warmed up the snow became soft and we started to sink more and more into the deeper drifts.  Thank goodness for our hiking poles that we gave each other for Christmas this year.  They really came in handy.   But even the poles weren't much help when I hit an icy patch and had an impromptu ‘luge’ run down the side of a hill.  It was a fun ‘ride’ but then I had to climb back up the hill - luckily with nothing bruised but my pride. 

 

Skeleton Lake with ice

 

Mostly our snow hikes were fun, adventurous and good practice in following and finding the trail but we did say ‘uncle’ one day.  After a gorgeous hike to Skeleton Lake which was still partially iced over we had planned to continue on through Duck Pass to Duck Lake.  Almost immediately after leaving Skeleton Lake we started getting into deep snow.  Maybe if we had persevered and made it past the pass the trail would have been better.  But after David twisted his knee and we almost lost Maya in the snow, we all decided it wasn’t that much fun anymore.  Maya loves romping in snow but even she was struggling.  So we turned back and left Duck Lake for another time.



Maya almost buried in snow - time to turn back

 

We are spending the weekend in a commercial campground in Mammoth Lakes and are taking a few little ‘day trips’ this weekend.  This region of the Sierra Nevada is rich with amazing places.  There is so much we want to do that we will stay another week.  We are looking forward to visiting the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest tomorrow and then spending most of next week in the Ansel Adams Wilderness.



Emerald Lake

 

David's Stats:
Days Hiked     3 
Total Miles Hiked     19.01
Ave. Miles per Day    6.34   
Total Elevation Gain       3,178
Ave. Elevation Gain per day  1,059

 





Monarchs of the Sierra Nevada



Top two-thirds of the General Grant Tree
Kings Canyon National Park

In all the world, giant sequoia trees grow naturally only on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, usually between 5,000 and 7,000 feet in elevation.  But what a tree this narrow strip of California produces!  At least one tree species lives longer, three grow taller and one has greater diameter but no single tree can equal the sequoia’s total volume of wood. (Aspen tree clones make up the most massive tree organism in the world.)

 

Sierra Nevadas from Sequoia National Park



Hume Lake, Giant Sequoia National Monument
our campground for the week

The majority of the 75 groves of giant sequoia are located in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and the surrounding Giant Sequoia National Monument and Forest.  We camped at Hume Lake in the northern section of the national monument located between the two national parks.  The lake, originally a holding pond for the Hume-Bennett Lumber Mill, was a beautiful place to camp and we were within 30 minutes of both parks.  Plus there were several hiking trails in the national monument where we could hike with Maya.  Although we didn’t make it to all 75 groves of sequoia, we had a grand time among grand trees.



General Sherman Tree from a distance
What a trunk!



General Sherman posing for tourists
It is very hard to get 'him' all in one picture

Typically we spent part of our day hiking and then drove to one of the national parks to visit a sequoia grove or see the beautiful canyons and mountains.  We visited the Giant Forest and saw the General Sherman Tree with its circumference at the ground of nearly 103 feet, its height at 275 feet and weight estimated at 1,385 tons – the largest single tree in the world.  Coming in at third place was the General Grant Tree and the Boole Tree at number eight.  We saw them all and many other giant sequoias as well.  Pioneering conservationist, John Muir, who explored and named the Giant Forest summed up how it felt to be in the midst of the sequoias “…one naturally walked softly and awe-stricken among them.”  I can’t think of a better way to put it.

 

Boole Tree in the fog...

 

Maya and Cindy at the base of the Boole Tree
the 8th largest tree in the world and
the largest tree in the national forest system

 

One of our favorite hikes was the Boole Tree Trail.  The Boole tree stands in the Converse Basin which was essentially clear cut of sequoias back in the late 1800s during the historic logging of that time.  No one really knows why this tree was spared but when the logging was done, this lone monarch remained.  Over 100 years have passed since then and pines, furs and new sequoias have filled in the basin.  It looks like a forest again though it will be 1000 years or more before the sequoias will be mature.  Hauntingly the old stumps of the sequoias that were logged still remain throughout the basin as reminders of the many giants that once stood here.

 

Sequoia stump in Converse Basin

 

That's a big stump! 

 

This year's snows were light and came late to the Sierra Nevadas.  We were surprised that there were still some road closers in the higher elevations of Sequoia National Park.  And snow fell one day during our stay.  So we cooked soup, snuggled up with good books and watched the snow for a few hours one afternoon.  There was just that one day the weather kept us off the trails although we had fog and mist parts of two other days.  After several weeks in the desert, we were not upset by a little snow and fog and even the cold felt nice.  But we were glad to see the sun later in the week.




Incense cedar and pines with snow



Middle Fork of the Kings River, Kings Canyon National Park



Kings Canyon as the clouds lift

We are in Fresno for the Memorial Day Weekend and it is in the 90s here.  The groceries are bought and our RV, car, clothes, David and I and Maya  are all washed and ready for another adventure.  Tomorrow (Monday) we will head through Yosemite National Park on our way to the Inyo National Forest and the Ansel Adams and John Muir Wildernesses on the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevadas.   We are not going to stay in Yosemite as it is one of the best loved thus most crowded of our national parks.  (And we have been there before.)  But we are looking forward to exploring the two nearby wilderness areas which we have never seen.  Also after a couple of days in the 90s, getting back into the mountains and cooler temperatures will be most welcome.

We hope you all are enjoying your Memorial Day Weekend.

 

Wolf lichen on tree trunks

 

Wolf lichen on branches

 

David's Stats:
Days Hiked     6

Snow Days     1 
Total Miles Hiked   22.56      
Ave. Miles per Day      3.76
Total Elevation Gain       2,466
Ave. Elevation Gain per day   411

 

Snow Plant
a parasitic plant of unusual red color

Deserts to Mountains



Death Valley Dunes

We’ve left the desert behind and are making our way up the Sierras.   The cool and the green are most welcoming. The mountains are blocking phone and Internet signals so we are mostly without Internet.  Posting blogs will be challenging, but I’ll get information up when I can.  In the meantime, here are a few more images from the beautiful deserts we’ve seen this spring.  And a taste of tall trees with the promise of more to come...

 

Rock layers -  Zabriskie Point, Death Valley

 

Wildflowers - Death Valley



Prince's Plume



Beavertail Cactus in bloom



Goodbye desert...




Hello really big trees!

After being in national parks for several weeks we all needed some serious walks.  So we spent a few days in the southern section of the Sequoia National Monument north of Lake Isabella.  It was just what the doctor ordered.  Almost no people, beautiful trails in the sequoias and Maya got her walks.  Today we are headed to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.  More big trees!

 



 

 

 

David's Stats:
Days Hiked   2
Total Miles Hiked 15.62     
Ave. Miles per Day      7.81
Total Elevation Gain       2,335
Ave. Elevation Gain per day  1,168  



Death Valley Days



 Death Valley as seen from Dante's View at 5,475 ft.
Low point on valley floor is 282 ft. below sea level

We’ve been through Las Vegas twice in the last 5 days and we only stopped once, but not to gamble.  We needed a few supplies from REI.  There are no slot machines in REI, although they are most everywhere else you can possibly imagine.  All of Nevada is like that, I guess.  We stayed in Pahrump, NV for a few days just east of Death Valley and there were slot machines next to the RV park.
 

Badwater Basin, the lowest point in Death Valley

 

After a few days of driving to Death Valley from Pahrump, we moved to the campground at Furnace Creek Ranch.  The weather has not been too hot yet, but even so down in the valley the temperatures were in the 90s.  We wanted to make sure we could get a site with electricity so we could run the air conditioner.  90 degrees can warm up our little RV well into the 100’s.  And that is not pleasant.




Twenty Mule Team Canyon

20-mule team wagon at Harmony Borax Works
These wagons could weigh 36 tons or more
 

Besides Death Valley being the hottest, driest and lowest national park, it is huge!  At 3.4 million acres it is the largest national park in the contiguous United States -- only Alaska has bigger ones.  We spent the better part of 4 days touring the park and did not see it all.  We lost one day of sightseeing   because of a severe sand storm.  All one night and day we had to take shelter in our RV.  The RV shook, Maya shook, the electricity went out and the heat went up, but we made it through.  It was a little taste of how the ‘old-timers’ had to do it.  Now David can add a new category to his stats, a “Sand Day.”



Sand dunes with a hint of a storm in the background



Here comes the sand storm!



Sand rolls across Death Valley

I was prepared that Death Valley would be hot and that the desert scenery would be spectacular.  But I wasn’t prepared for the magnificence – it was almost overwhelming.  The park also has a lot of history with borax and gold mining, ghost towns and eccentric characters plus it is the ancestral homeland of the Timbisha Shoshone Indians.




Emigrant Canyon was full of blooming wildflowers

Mojave aster

 

We did a lot of driving in this big park, made many stops for photos and we walked some short nature trails.  We couldn’t take Maya on the trails and most of the time I wouldn’t have wanted her out in the heat.  She is a mostly black dog and if I thought the desert floor felt hotter than it actually was, it would really have been hot for her with all that fur.

Zabriskie Point - a good photo op
 



My turn!

Maya and David are ready for the forest.  They aren’t quite the desert rats that I am.  And we are all ready for some cooler weather and long hikes.  So tomorrow we will be like the member of that ill-fated 49er wagon party that gave the park its name.  As the man left the valley he turned and said, “Goodbye Death Valley,” and so will we.

David's Stats:
Days Hiked     4

Sand Days      1
Total Miles Hiked  5.60    
Ave. Miles per Day    1.40
Total Elevation Gain     215 
Ave. Elevation Gain per day 54   




View from Artists Palette