Road trip part 9 - ancient bristlecone pines

Our last stop on the road trip was up high in the Nevada range where the bristlecone pines live. It's up around 9,000 feet, and the land is inhospitable. There isn't really any soil there, just rock. And gravel. And given the elevation, there's not much air there either. Think Mordor...



There are a bunch of equally craggy trees. Some of them have given up the ghost...



But some of them are still hanging on. This one is over 3,000 years old...





I could only imagine that these trees have a completely different concept of time than anything else on earth. They don't grow very fast. They accumulate the thinnest of layers every year and they are tough as the stone around them. When they die, they don't rot. They Erode.



This beauty has been growing for over 2,500 years...

This is, at long last, the final post in the road trip series.
Hope you enjoyed the ride!