Saturday Haiku: Old Pine

the bristlecone pine

encompasses life and death

in its ancient limbs*

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*The Methuselah Trail is located in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains in the Inyo National Forest, northeast of Bishop. From the trail you will see the oldest Great Basin Bristlecone pine – Methuselah.

Methuselah is more than 4,840 years old. Compare that to the oldest known giant sequoia, which is only about 3,500 years old. To put that in perspective, that means that Methuselah was already living during the 18th Egyptian Dynasty (1300 B.C.) and when the Babylonian empire was flourishing (2635 B.C.). From the California Wilderness Coalition site.

Photo: Bristlecone pine along the Methuselah Trail, in White Mountains, California
(Courtesy of Wikipedia)



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