The Palace Guard protecting a patriarch of the tribe?
The wounded and dead lie fallen.
From my arduous hike in the Bristlecone Pine Shulmann Grove.
This is looking up a wash on the Schulmann Groves Methuselah trail
Near the trail are thousands of pine cones, which makes you realize the eldest of this group of trees is somewhere near the top.
I carefully hiked and crawled about 100 yards up this wash, being careful not to fall OR cause damage. At 10,000+ feet. and after 4 hours of hiking, it was a grind
A park service volunteer nearby cautioned me but gave tacit approval if I was careful.
I suspect the oldest tress are to be found near the top, perhaps the revered & protected Methuselah.
Yes, I have the GPS coordinates for a future return visit
The blown out sky was a disappointment, but it was what I was given.
AJ,
That would be a tough climb in the snow.
Definitely would bring snow shoes & a pole.
To avoid causing erosion, I would stay off to the right as there is more rock
and that's where the park service guy was doing his climbing.
Have you been up there before?
What time of year are you thinking of?
Dan
Very nice; its time to go back and take multiple exposures and some HDR. And maybe shift to the left a little to make the trees line up and a little wider angle to make the first tree bigger in relation to the rest. I hope I'm not being too forward with my suggestions and please take them with the thought that I wasn't there.
Hugh, thanks for the comments. It was definitely worth it.
Warren, I appreciate the suggestions. Since I was using a crop camera, the wide angle, at 17mm,was already showing distortion even with the tripod all the way up, which wasn't easy on that slope! I thought about some bracketing, but unless I PS in another sky, gray is gray.
But next time I will be more purposeful
AJ, I would like to go up there with snow, but we are at the mercy of the weather 7 the roads.
I am not concerned about the passes, but Hwy 168 does close and is not cleared as often as the passes. I would have to follow the storms & forecasts & check with the Parks about the road to the grove. Something to consider.
BTW, where are you located? I am in the S.F Bay Area and would rather car pool up.
