The eastern Edge of Yosemite National Park
A Walk Among the Ancients
East of Yosemite Valley, the Sequoias, Ponderosa pines, and cedar trees of California's Sierra Nevada give way to the high desert of Owens Valley. You first pass through the Ansel Adams Wilderness, and the stunning beauty of montane lakes.
The splendor the eastern Sierra Nevada range makes the sudden entry into the high desert all the more jarring. Strangled by the rain shadow of mountains, it is a land of scrub brush plants, rocks, and BLM land.
Though desolate, it is also strikingly beautiful, and feels like a world away from the mild pleasantness of San Francisco Bay, or the hip energy of Los Angeles.
Continue heading east, and you will begin to ascend the White mountains. Short coniferous trees take over the landscape as you ascend to the land of the oldest living solitary organisms on earth.
The trees surrounding you now, a mile above sea level, are a mixture of Piñon pine and Juniper trees. The ancient ones you seek grow at 10,000 feet above sea level. This is the domain the the Bristlecone Pine Tress, and the 4,848 year-old Methuselah Tree.
The location of the Methuselah tree is secret closely guarded by the National Park Service. Fearing that visitors will damage the tree while trying to absorb the essence of its longevity, they have left it anonymous. Thriving nearly 2 miles above sea level, the Bristlecones are wonders of endurance. Many survive with only a thin strip of bark running from the roots to the tip of the treat. They have resisted insects, storms, droughts, and whatever else nearly 5,000 years of life will throw at them. And they are beautiful.
It is humbling to be in the presence of such ancient trees, and then to consider we get 100 years if we're lucky, and maybe a little more if we're truly exceptional. Most of us won't make it to 90. What could one do with 50 lifetimes?
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