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| Patriarch Grove - Bristlecone Pines Forest, CA | | -
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| | Patriarch Grove - Bristlecone Pines Forest, CA | | | |
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Patriarch Grove - Bristlecone Pines Forest, CA
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| Hiking | 1.25 Miles |
207 AEG |
| | Hiking | 1.25 Miles | 1 Hour 19 Mns | | 1.19 mph |
| 207 ft AEG | 16 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | I started home from the Eastern Sierras a day earlier than planned to explore up White Mountain Rd to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains. This was a worth while side trip on the way back home starting on HW168 to Nevada and wasn't that far off of the fasted driving route to Phoenix suggested by Google Maps. I decided to drive as far up as the Patriarch Grove and see what it had to offer. There were some nice views of the Eastern Sierras at several pull-offs along the road. The grove is at an elevation of 11,300 ft. There are 2 short hiking trails, a quarter mile Nature Trail which looped through the grove, and a 3/4 mile trail to a viewpoint of Cottonwood Basin. The nature trail was very informative with placards explaining the origins of these ancient trees and how they survived through the Ice Age to modern times. I faithfully recorded all the placards in photographs thinking it might be of interest to my grandchildren but decided not to post them on HAZ.  The viewpoint hike had some nice views towards White Mountain, the Cottonwood Basin as promised by the sign, and the Great Basin in Nevada to the east.
I learned on the Nature Trail that Patriarch Grove is close to the tree line but as our climate warms up the trees will migrate up the hillside to higher altitudes. The evidence of this can be seen in the scattered young trees that can be seen on the hillsides above the grove. The older Bristlecone Pine trees are actually at lower altitudes like at the Shulman Grove I passed on the way up there. I should have stopped there on the way back because there appears to be some interesting hikes to look at the older trees. But by then I realized that if I continued on the drive towards home rather than staying overnight some where up here in the White Mountains I could get home a day earlier than originally planned with an overnight motel stop in Beatty, NV, for a shower . I still had clean clothes left in my vast supply after 14 days away, several days of food and 10 gallons of pure Eastern Sierra spring water, but I was longing to get home to the 115 deg temps (not) and family. |
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