We left asap and headed for Charleston Peak about 45 minutes out of town. It's nice that there is a mountain relatively close to Las Vegas, where you can escape the desert for a while. It was *cold*, which was a big change from the 30+ weather we were in during the day. We weren't keen to ride the trails there though so we continued NW towards Bishop California.
The route ended up being a series of back roads and, much to our happy surprise, we ended up in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest are of the Inyo National Forest. This is where the oldest trees in the world are located--between 4000-5000 years old!
We had to drive up and up and there's a lovely view point where you can see the 'Inconsolable Range' of mountains. Mount Whitney is in the area, but you couldn't quite see it from that area.
See the mountain chain in the distance?
We kept going up and stopped at the visitor centre where there are a few trails to hike. There was a fair bit of snow, so we stuck to the shorter trail. These trees have grown so old partly because they have really no competition (it's very high up and the soil is alkaline, so little can survive there) and partly because it's so remote. The trees grow very slowly and the wood is incredibly strong. Thankfully they are protected!
The oldest known tree, named the Methuselah Tree, is somewhere in this forest. However, it's exactly location is kept secret to protect the tree.
The trees are so amazing!:
This tree must be in a vortex--take that Sedona!
There was an interesting section with these red rocks left over from when this used to be the bottom of an ocean. Crazy to think about given how high up it is now.
Thousands of rings
I'm so glad we came across this area! Luke had learned about it a few months before but we didn't realize we'd be passing it. One of my favourite unplanned stops!
We reached Bishop later that day. It's a super cute hippie town that's well known for it's climbing, bouldering in particular. The area gets very little precipitation so you're almost guaranteed to have good climbing weather (although it was raining when we were there...and that was the talk of the town). They have really cool huge boulders there too. We went to Buttermilk Rd to check out the scene and there were people there even in the rain.
We were in town during Mule Days, the town's week long festival celebrating their history with mules. We had seen wild mules on the way there and there were progressively more and more people in cowboy hats and spurs appearing in town. I was super jazzed about the Mule parade, which is the largest non-motorized parade in the world since the mules pull the floats. Unfortunately we miscalculated the day so I didn't get to see the parade after all. I can imagine it was amazing though :)
the view from our campsite
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