The Methusaleh Tree

The location of the ancient Great Basin bristlecone pine forest is not a secret.  Which tree is actually the 4,846 year old Methusaleh tree IS the secret!  Thank you, vandals, everywhere :-(



It's not difficult to find Inyo County, California and the White Mountains.  There's even a sign on the highway that points to the forest, though it wasn't a very big, imposing sign.  So, we hang a left and then another left, and up the mountain we go!

The tree has had the name of Methusaleh for so long that it probably won't change.  However, the scientists have discovered another bristlecone in the same area that is judged to be 5,065 years old. (meaning that it poked its first bristle out of the ground -- are you ready? -- 3,051 years before Christ! Yowser!)

It was really, really cold when we got into the car this morning down in Bishop. Now we're about 9,500 feet above sea level, and the wind is howling.  The tallest peak in the White Mountain range if over 14,000 feet high.  Today it has the first dusting of this season's snow.

We also seem to be about the only people on this peak!  It's a beautiful center - but closed for the winter.  Thank goodness the potties were unlocked!  Icy cold pit toilets are not my favorite, but Granma had to go! 

The paved road ends at the interpretive center. We try to follow the dirt road on up, but it got pretty rough.  No worries, there's a footpath that wanders through the forest.  This place is at the treeline hence the sparse growth.

These guys are not the most attractive organisms in the world, but I think that they are beautiful!

The bark-less (is that a word?) wood is part of the reason the bristlecone pine is so long lived.  Also, their needles don't fall off - so no energy or nutrients are wasted re-growing them. They also grow very, very slowly which makes them virtually pest-resistant.  Then there's the fact that they grow in a location that minimizes exposure to wildfire.  And finally, the oldest of them grow in what's considered "poor" soil conditions. The very same pine trees in "good" soil grow taller and straighter, but they don't tend to live as long.  It's a strange combination of facts, but it works for Methusaleh - and his older brother, whatever his name is.

Now it's back down the mountain and back through Bishop to Yosemite, which is where we originally planned to go before being run off the road by a brothel and sidetracked to Methusaleh...

Maybe someday we'll go find the eighty-thousand-year-old Quaking Aspens in Fish Lake National Forest in south-central Utah; and the eleven-thousand-seven-hundred-year-old Creosote bush named "King Clone" in the Mojave Desert near the Lucerne Valley in California!  These guys are what's known as Clonal organisms - different class from the bristlecone pines.






This is a view of Death Valley from the top of the White Mountains Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest!