October 12, 2025.
With a big snowstorm on the way, we took the last good weather window to drive up to the Ancient Bristlecone pine forest outside Bishop, California. The drive to the visitor center on a long, windy, paved road takes about an hour from Bishop, and you can call it good there. But drive another hour or so up the rough gravel road and you can get to the Patriarch Grove. A sign outside the visitor center tallied up how many flat tires were reported on that road since the start of the season (a lot). Freaked out by this statistic, I asked the ranger if he said it was worth it the risky drive, and he replied with an emphatic yes.
The only caveats: make sure you’ve got heavy duty tires (check) and you drive SLOW (check). We took his advice and cruised up the long, dusty road at a snail’s pace.
Before embarking on that adventure, though, we watched the movie in the visitor center. This is often our favorite part of going into these buildings. In 20-30 minutes you learn a ton about park history, seasons, flora, fauna and more. This video focused on how scientists learned how to count tree rings and use them like a calendar, birthing the field of dendrochronology. We also learned about how bristlecones are the longest lived trees on earth, with some trees dating to over four thousand years old. That’s incredible!
We thought about all these cool facts as we headed up the road. The drive in and of itself was beautiful, worth the time if you’ve got a whole day. Occasionally we’d pull over and take photos of our surroundings, noting how the plants and temperature changed as we climbed. By the time we reached the trailhead, it was time to bundle up. The sun was intensely bright but the air was freezing!
There are a few short trails at the Patriarch Grove. Aaron and I both of the loops together, stopping often to admire the colors, textures and sizes of the various trees. I loved to see the little baby trees with the elders towering above them. Each tree had its own sort of personality, trunks twisting in various ways and branches holding either many needles or none at all. Several trees appeared to be dead at first glance and you had to look more closely to find signs of life.
Once we hiked both loops, I grabbed my art supplies to go back and paint one of the trees at a spot I liked. It was in the sun and I had a view of a nice tree. Sitting in one place, I began to get cold (despite my layers). Once the sun fell behind the trees, I quickly wrapped up my painting session and briskly walked out of there. I made some cocoa back at the van and warmed up before we started the long drive back downhill.
I would absolutely love to come back here during the brief wildflower season during the summer. I learned about the other plants found here in the visitor center, but they had gone dormant long before our autumn visit. It would also be a very beautiful place to see in the snow but I am sure not too many people aside from the scientists are able to make it up that road in those conditions!