BajaNomad - The feel of the Bristlecone Pines

The feel of the Bristlecone Pines

DianaT - 9-10-2013 at 09:45 PM

We love hanging out with these ancient trees. Just a bit different.

And my personal favorite.

If you have not seen them in person, the Bristlecone Pines need to be on your bucket list.

OK, now one big tree and one cone.

Thanks for looking

[Edited on 9-11-2013 by DianaT]

Mexitron - 9-10-2013 at 10:11 PM

Now cut that out----I'm going there in three weeks and you're getting all the good pics before me! :lol:

Looks great Diane, can't wait to see in person.....actually can't believe I've never been there, being a CA native and a plant nut.

Barry A. - 9-10-2013 at 10:22 PM

That White Mt. bristlecone forest is huge---------make sure you allow ample time to really see it and soak it in, I suggest. It is almost overwhelming, or at least that has always been our impression. We keep going back-----maybe done it 15 times now.

Barry

DianaT - 9-10-2013 at 10:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mexitron
Now cut that out----I'm going there in three weeks and you're getting all the good pics before me! :lol:

Looks great Diane, can't wait to see in person.....actually can't believe I've never been there, being a CA native and a plant nut.

I just hope your drive us there is a pretty as it was today with all the Rabbit Brush in bloom!

As we did in the past, many end their trip up there at the Discovery Trail and Visitor Center --- don't! Go on to the Patriarch grove and beyond and you will be happy you did so.

I look forward to your photos and trip report!

:yes:

DianaT - 9-10-2013 at 10:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Barry A.
That White Mt. bristlecone forest is huge---------make sure you allow ample time to really see it and soak it in, I suggest. It is almost overwhelming, or at least that has always been our impression. We keep going back-----maybe done it 15 times now.

Barry

It is a little different every time, and always wonderful. Right now some of the off shoot roads are closed due to flooding, but they will come back! Once you visit, they call you back.

BTW--- Death Valley and the roads there have been hit hard with floods this year and the Saline Valley/Death Valley road is still closed. The upside is that the flowers next year may be wonderful.

[Edited on 9-11-2013 by DianaT]

Skipjack Joe - 9-11-2013 at 05:44 AM

Some of the old masters did some great B&W work with this subject. I wonder if it's worth a try now.

Alex and I were talking about depth of field the other day.

DianaT - 9-11-2013 at 06:32 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Skipjack Joe
Some of the old masters did some great B&W work with this subject.....

Yes with the right weather. I have a few B & Ws that I did when there was snow on the trees and I like them. I want to try more. I am sure you and Alex could do very well with that idea.

Yesterday was not a good time --- time wise or weather wise for the trees. It was better in the later afternoon, but we had to return home.

Also, we spent more time poking around the trail that leads up to this-- one we may do sometime.

And Tommy just wanted to look for that marmot who did not want to play.

wessongroup - 9-11-2013 at 07:48 AM

WOOF ... thanks

CortezBlue - 9-11-2013 at 07:56 AM

Love the fotos!

Ateo - 9-11-2013 at 08:13 AM

Oldest living things on Earth correct? Took the family up there last month. Thanks for posting.

DianaT - 9-11-2013 at 08:58 AM

Thanks, I appreciate the comments. And CortezBlue, all but the two that John took were taken with the little Nex6. The tree and the road were taken with Johns Rebel.

Ateo, I have always believed they are the oldest living things on earth, but now I hear there is a Cresote bush that is challenging this --- I think it will lose. :biggrin:

durrelllrobert - 9-11-2013 at 08:58 AM

Visited the Whites and the Bristle Cones many times when I lived in Ridgecrest/China Lake in the mid 60s, 70s and early 80's. Every time I saw new things.

Barry A. - 9-11-2013 at 09:01 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by DianaT

Quote:

A friend of my Son's drove into Saline Valley from the south on the "closed" County road in a new Toyota FJ cruizer last Sunday. He said lots of wash-outs, but certainly passable. They went north from the Death Valley highway down Grapevine Canyon to where Grapevine Canyon dumps into Saline Valley itself and encountered some folks that said the northern approach to Saline Valley was still impassible(???) but that you could come in over Steel Pass from Eureka Valley, tho it's tricky. There is a 2x2 van stuck on the Steel Pass road where they tried to cross a badly erroded washout and it has been temporarily abandoned. The owners had been camped long-term (2-weeks?) at Warm Springs, but have now left the area presumably to get help for the Van ?!?!?!?!?

Yes, lots of road damage from the rains.

This is all third and fourth-hand info, so total accuracy is not assured.

I believe that the Bristlecone's being "the oldest living thing on the planet" has been challenged, and no longer holds that title but I forget what possibly has replaced it. Still, they are reallllllllly old!!!

Barry

Barry A. - 9-11-2013 at 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by DianaT
Thanks, I appreciate the comments. And CortezBlue, all but the two that John took were taken with the little Nex6. The tree and the road were taken with Johns Rebel.

Ateo, I have always believed they are the oldest living things on earth, but now I hear there is a Cresote bush that is challenging this --- I think it will lose. :biggrin:

The "creosote bush rings" spotted from aerial photos in the Imperial Valley are now thought to be very old, possibly older than the Bristlecone, but they are not a "single plant" depending on how you interpret the info, but rather a communal type family of related plants presumably all stemming from an original single plant, as I remember it from when I lived down there--------(my memory is pretty faulty, tho)

Barry

DianaT - 9-11-2013 at 09:38 AM

Barry,
I think I will let the Bristlecones fight it out with the Creosotes. As you say, they are both very, very old --- older than we are. :biggrin:

The Death Valley Facebook page just posted these road pictures this morning.

Death Valley Facebook -- Road Pictures

Lots of road work ahead!

willardguy - 9-11-2013 at 09:39 AM

I thought some kind of sea grass was the new record holder? :?:

Barry A. - 9-11-2013 at 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by willardguy
I thought some kind of sea grass was the new record holder? :?:

OMG----------the plot thickens!!! Apparently lots of contenders. :lol:

But, but-----NOTHING looks as old as a BristleCone Pine tree!!!!

Barry

DianaT - 9-11-2013 at 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Barry A.

But, but-----NOTHING looks as old as a BristleCone Pine tree!!!!

Barry

Oh, what an opening, so tempting, so very tempting. :lol:

Skipjack Joe - 9-11-2013 at 02:04 PM

Creosote bushes are way cool (to use today's vernacular). They are great to photograph and to hike through. The leaves are a very attractive green and the stems have a articular quality to them that I've always liked.

Barry A. - 9-11-2013 at 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Skipjack Joe
Creosote bushes are way cool (to use today's vernacular). They are great to photograph and to hike through. The leaves are a very attractive green and the stems have a articular quality to them that I've always liked.

------Plus, in a good year, they have wonderful tiny little yellow flowers that light up the landscape!!

(----and No, I won't bite on Diane's post out of respect for all the age-challenged NOMADS)

Barry

BajaLuna - 9-12-2013 at 11:08 PM

LOVE these! OMiGoSH, it's spectacular what you captured, the scenes in the tree wood, wow.

durrelllrobert - 9-13-2013 at 11:45 AM

Quote:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Clone‎

King Clone is thought to be the oldest Creosote bush ring in the Mojave Desert. The ring is estimated to be 11,700 years old. It is considered one of the oldest living organisms on Earth. This single clonal colony plant of Larrea tridentata reaches up to 67 feet (20 m) in diameter, with an average diameter of 45 feet (14 m)

Geography

The King Clone ring is on restricted-access public land in the central Mojave Desert, approximately 0.6 miles north of California Route 247 on Bessemer Mine Road near the towns of Lucerne Valley and Landers. It is within the Creosote Rings Preserve of the Lucerne Valley and Johnson Valley.

Dating methodology

King Clone was identified and the 11,700 years old age documented by Frank Vasek, a professor at the University of California, Riverside. After Vasek hypothesized that the creosote ring was in fact one organism, Leonel Sternberg (then a graduate student working in Vasek's lab), was able to show that plants in a ring had some identical characteristics, but those shared characteristics differed from other plant clusters. Vasek then used two methods to determine the age of the ring. One method counted rings and measured the distance of annual growth, and the other used radiocarbon dating on chunks of wood found in the center of the ring, and measuring their distance from each other and the living bushes. Both dating methods yielded the same result.

DianaT - 9-13-2013 at 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by BajaLuna
LOVE these! OMiGoSH, it's spectacular what you captured, the scenes in the tree wood, wow.

Thank you --- In the third one, I felt like I was seeing the whole forest reflected back at me. I am glad you saw the scenes.

Now I am really interested in learning more about Cresote.

volcano - 9-19-2013 at 06:01 AM

Diana..I will never pass up another photo post by you....wow.......

Heather..Oregon/EastCape