The Vigil
Last Sunday, my buddy Eric and I, on a whim, jumped in his Rav 4 and headed up to the White Mountains to try our luck with the Ancient Bristlecone Forest. Both of us have shot the Schulman Grove before, but we really wanted to head farther out to the Patriarch Grove to explore.
We had tried this a couple of years ago, but we were turned back due to huge drifts of snow that had survived into June. We had actually snuck past the road closed barrier thinking that they couldn't possibly be referring to my Toyota FJ only to find huge drifts of snow about a mile or so in. We beat a hasty retreat and vowed to try it again when the tiny access road wasn't buried in several feet of snow.
We had much better luck this year, and were surprised at how green everything was this late in July. It was a clear afternoon and the views of the Sierras across the valley were simply epic. We didn't quite make it all the way out to the Patriarch Grove as we ran into a road closed barrier about a mile before the parking area. Not all of the snow had melted off and there was still a small glacier blocking the road. We were planning on hoofing it in when we stopped to look around and found some other interesting Bristlecones nearby.
I've posted a couple of shots from this forest before, but in case you missed those or are unfamiliar with the background of these incredible trees, many of the trees in this area are upwards of 3000 years old and are considered to be some of the oldest living organisms on earth.
Eric and I had been watching the clouds since we first noticed them just South of Lone Pine, but we tried not to get our hopes up. Both of us have been skunked dozens of times before, so we have come to expect disappointment on a fairly regular basis. On this occasion, however, the high clouds stubbornly refused to disappear and as sunset drew near, we both headed off in different directions to look for comps. I had gone only a short way when I noticed this guy high up on the ridge. As I set up my gear and waited for the light to do something, it was easy to imagine this particular tree keeping a silent vigil, watching hundreds of thousands of sunsets over the course of his life. His vigil was upwards of 3000 years. Mine was...um...30 minutes. :)
The sky began to light up, but just as suddenly, all of the light suddenly vanished and the clouds returned to a sullen gray. I realized that the sun was now behind the Sierras and also behind a bank of clouds off to the West, and that the show was probably over. Remembering that it's not really over until it's over, I dug in and waited. Sure enough, 10 minutes later a faint streak of pink appeared on the ridge over on my left. Then a bit more. And then the whole sky was glowing.
I was smiling pretty broadly at this point and I found myself wondering...if you've been on this earth for 3000 years...does this ever really get old?
--------------
Thank you so much for your views and comments! If you have specific questions or need to get in touch with me, please be sure to send me a message via flickr mail, or feel free to contact me via one of the following:
The Vigil
Last Sunday, my buddy Eric and I, on a whim, jumped in his Rav 4 and headed up to the White Mountains to try our luck with the Ancient Bristlecone Forest. Both of us have shot the Schulman Grove before, but we really wanted to head farther out to the Patriarch Grove to explore.
We had tried this a couple of years ago, but we were turned back due to huge drifts of snow that had survived into June. We had actually snuck past the road closed barrier thinking that they couldn't possibly be referring to my Toyota FJ only to find huge drifts of snow about a mile or so in. We beat a hasty retreat and vowed to try it again when the tiny access road wasn't buried in several feet of snow.
We had much better luck this year, and were surprised at how green everything was this late in July. It was a clear afternoon and the views of the Sierras across the valley were simply epic. We didn't quite make it all the way out to the Patriarch Grove as we ran into a road closed barrier about a mile before the parking area. Not all of the snow had melted off and there was still a small glacier blocking the road. We were planning on hoofing it in when we stopped to look around and found some other interesting Bristlecones nearby.
I've posted a couple of shots from this forest before, but in case you missed those or are unfamiliar with the background of these incredible trees, many of the trees in this area are upwards of 3000 years old and are considered to be some of the oldest living organisms on earth.
Eric and I had been watching the clouds since we first noticed them just South of Lone Pine, but we tried not to get our hopes up. Both of us have been skunked dozens of times before, so we have come to expect disappointment on a fairly regular basis. On this occasion, however, the high clouds stubbornly refused to disappear and as sunset drew near, we both headed off in different directions to look for comps. I had gone only a short way when I noticed this guy high up on the ridge. As I set up my gear and waited for the light to do something, it was easy to imagine this particular tree keeping a silent vigil, watching hundreds of thousands of sunsets over the course of his life. His vigil was upwards of 3000 years. Mine was...um...30 minutes. :)
The sky began to light up, but just as suddenly, all of the light suddenly vanished and the clouds returned to a sullen gray. I realized that the sun was now behind the Sierras and also behind a bank of clouds off to the West, and that the show was probably over. Remembering that it's not really over until it's over, I dug in and waited. Sure enough, 10 minutes later a faint streak of pink appeared on the ridge over on my left. Then a bit more. And then the whole sky was glowing.
I was smiling pretty broadly at this point and I found myself wondering...if you've been on this earth for 3000 years...does this ever really get old?
--------------
Thank you so much for your views and comments! If you have specific questions or need to get in touch with me, please be sure to send me a message via flickr mail, or feel free to contact me via one of the following: