Attack of the zombie trees

Visiting the Bristlecone Pines is because of Galen Rowell. See, they are some of the oldest living things on the planet. They live for centuries, with a short growing season and with a bunch of adaptations for having an incredibly slow metabolism to conserve every last resource. They thrive where other trees won't.

I like to think of them as zombie trees. See, the tree allows huge chunks of itself to die over time and just leaves a little bit of itself alive. So they are kind of half-dead. Like zombies.

We were up at 10,000 ft, which is altitude sickness zone.