Melody and I headed out to the Sierras, in an area we really haven’t visited at all, the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest.  The eerie looking trees always had a mystic to it, very omniscient due to the age and weathered look of the whole place.  The rare beings grow between 9,800 and 11,000 feet above sea level, in alpine conditions, and can be a rare sight.  We planned out a weekend trip to just go with the flow, finding different sights around the Owens valley.  The weather was surprisingly brisk when we arrived, with the valley floor reaching the 90’s at the time.  But as we climbed in elevation, the air began to cool and induced some numb fingertips.  We headed out to a viewpoint before going on a hike through the forest, just to get a sense of where we were.

Me, excitedly headed to the view the valley beyond.

I ended up getting a few photos of the Give’r sunglasses again, which never really was seen by anyone until now.  Luke ended up letting us borrow some gear to photograph, but nothing really ended up coming to fruition on these.  But I really love these photos of Melody, reminds me of some wonderful trips we’ve really set out to do on our very busy schedules.

And as you can see, the mountain sides really are quite barren.  Which is surprising that there are really are any trees that grow here.

And I just went crazy, but really like these of her.

My fave, really shows her excitement!

And Mel and Kel, which would be one of the last photos I really took of us.  I really need to get a few more shots of us.

We headed up into the forest for a quick hike, which was pretty exhausting coming from sea level.  The elevation really gets to you, since the forest is nestled on the toes of White Mountain, a 14,000 ft peak across the valley from Mt. Whitney.

I was really looking to get a few star shots that night, so I was scouting to see if there were any good places to shoot.  But I ended up setting up my tripod one last time for another Mel and Kel shot!

I had a few options, but they really didn’t convey what I wanted to get out of the photo.  There isn’t the grandeur that I wanted from the trees, instead I only found either smaller trees, or the larger ones were really bunched up in a grove like manner and prevented any sky photos.

A decent candidate, and space for a Milky Way or star photo.

And a different angle.  I really use these first time trips as scouting instead of actual photo capturing.

We headed down a few off road paths in the area to see if there were anymore standalone trees.  But as you can see below, the forest is quite dense and rather difficult to find the ideal location.

Melody and I exploring more of the hills of the White Mountains.

And the trees ended up being this dense, and nothing really what my eye envision to capture.

But I noticed the weathered look of the trunks and branches, and it shows the hardship that these trees really go through.  Not able to grow completely upward and stunted by both the snowpack and the elevation.

And an interesting one, if only it was more isolated.

I decided to get another view of the trees, just to see the fingers of the trees intertwined and reaching toward the sky.

Melody’s photo of me.

Another detailed view of a trunk, a really interesting site as you see the wood fibers changing directions while still growing.

This one tree really was something that I would have loved to setup, it had the mass and the branches of life and death.

A little too close, but still interesting to see how these trees don’t really grow the same as any other tree.

Melody, a little frosted as we headed out back toward the car.

A more standard but also awkward looking tree.

As we headed back, there was an interesting water run off where you could see all the twisted trees growing.

One of the last candidates.

And last but not least, on of my favorite of that day.  The clouds ended up rolling in as well as the wind which prevented any photos to be taken that night.  That coupled with the 20-30 degree weather let me decide that tonight would be best spend warm and in my sleeping bag.