This year’s trip up the Eastern Sierra did not end at its usual destination of Mono Lake.  In fact, it didn’t actually end up in the Eastern Sierra as the camping and most of the shooting was done in the White Mountains.  But nobody knows about the White Mountains or where they are.  They are one of the mountain ranges to your east as you drive up highway 395 through the Owens Valley.  Most people are gawking at the spectacular escarpment of the Eastern Sierra Nevada to the west and hardly pay any attention to the towering mountains to the east.

But starting east of Big Pine and extending north past Bishop is the White Mountain range which boasts the third tallest peak in California - White Mountain at 14,252 feet (4,344 m).  The White Mountains get their name from the dolomite formations there, a light gray sedimentary rock composed of calcium magnesium carbonate.  Dolomite gives the soil its high acidity, making this area perfect for the Ancient Bristlecone Pine.

And that brings us to the objective of this year’s Eastern Sierra trip - the Bristlecone Pine.  The trip was timed to be in the Bristlecone Pine forest for the September full moon which this year fell on Monday, September 15th.  An ancient, craggy Bristlecone Pine with the full moon rising behind it, that was the vision.

And how did it go?  Stay tuned….