When northwesterly cold fronts approach California, the westerly airflow can increase over the Sierra crest creating spectacular "stationary" clouds over the Owens Valley. These are known as mountain lee wave clouds (altocumulus leticularis), due to their occurance on the lee side of the mountan the air flows over. They can appear in any month, but are most often seen during late winter or early spring. This one was captured early June 1980, along the White Mountain Road.
Bristlecones have the ability to remain standing for centuries after death. Invasions from bacteria, fungus or insects that prey upon most plants, are unknown to the bristlecone due to their dense, highly resinous wood. The dry air common in the subalpine region can kill by desiccation, but also helps preserve the trees from rotting. When the tree eventually falls it is because the supporting roots finally decay or are undermined by erosion. This ghost is located on the northwestern limit of Schulman Grove and overlooks the snow covered Sierra Nevada to the west.
"It has been said that trees are imperfect men, and seem to bemoan their imprisonment rooted in the ground. But they never seem so to me. I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do. They go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves, traveling with us around the sun two million miles a day, and through space heaven knows how fast and far!"
John Muir
"The capacity of these trees to live so fantastically long may, when we come to understand it fully, perhaps serve as a guidepost on the road to the understanding of longevity in general."
Edmund Schulman
