Ancient Bristlecone Pine
Schulman Grove, Inyo National Forest, CA

Ancient Bristlecone Pines are the oldest trees on the planet and those in the Schulman Grove in the White Mountains are among the oldest in existence. They are very beautiful trees and bring to mind many thoughts of what the world must have been like when these trees were born. In the spring, the higher elevations of the White Mountains are still covered in a fair amount of snow... getting to the Bristlecone Groves is no easy task. But, I was determined to get back up there so I struck out on a short, but moderate 3 mile hike up to the Schulman Grove. Once there, I discovered the snow in the grove was still about 5-6 feet deep so the trail was not easy to locate. I continued on, most likely off-trail, post-holing through hip deep snow until I noticed this tree perched on the side of a very steep, shale-covered hill. Against my better judgment, I proceeded to climb the side of this "hill" to get the shot I was looking for. After and hour of struggling up about 600 vertical feet of pure shale rock, I finally reached the tree. I snapped off about 100 or so shots and proceeded, very carefully, to climb back down the side of the hill... slid down would be more accurate. Once I was comfortably back in my hotel room in Bishop, I loaded the images up to my laptop and was very pleased with the results. This shot, along with a few others, turned out very nicely.

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