The oldest living creatures on Planet Earth are found in the White Mountains of Nevada along the most scenic highway in the world, highway 395, along which one can find the town of Bishop where Galen Rowell famously photographed the Sierra Mountains of Light; the primordial-looking landscape of Mono Lake; the uber ski resort of the Sierra, Mammoth Mountain; Lee Vining, the eastern gateway to Yosemite National Park; the intact and eerie (especially in a thunderstorm which I was treated to when I was there) ghost town of Bodie; and the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest whose oldest trees, such as the at least 4,600 year old Methuselah tree, are unmarked and sheltered away from the public to protect them. Who wouldn't want to display a piece of the oldest living being in the world on their coffee table?
I trekked up to the top of the White Mountains with a question in mind for the trees. How are things going for your and my Mother Earth?
High up on the Methuselah Trail in Inyo National Forest, this Ancient Bristlecone Pine answered.