RStonejr posted a photo:

Whitney Portal Arch is my new favorite arch in the Alabama Hills. It?s really out of the way and off the beaten path. So you are not likely to run into any tourists ? and you will have the arch all to yourself.

Jim Morefield posted a photo:

whitebark pine, Pinus albicaulis, California, Sierra Nevada, Rock Creek Basin, East Fork, Rock Creek - Owens Valley drainage, elevation 3100 m (10170 ft).

Finally finished up 2016 with some whitebark pine research. This western North American endemic is currently a candidate for Endangered Species listing, because of widespread declines and mortality from white pine blister rust and pine beetles. Most of the mortality has been in the main part of its range in the northern Rocky Mountains. I have been helping to survey less impacted populations near the southern edge of its range.

whitebark pine is unique among North American white pines in having cones that remain closed until torn apart by animals, or falling apart on their own. The animals (mostly Clark's Nutcracker and various small mammals) are very efficient at this, and if you aren't there while cones are still on the tree, often all you find is a litter of disarticulated cones scales on the ground. The species depends almost entirely on Clark's Nutcracker to disperse its seeds. Vegetatively the species is virtually identical to limber pine (Pinus flexilis), which causes ID problems where they grow together, unless cones are present.

Here was a "typical" blackish-purple whitebark pine cone from the Sierra Nevada, conveniently dropped along the trail by a small mammal and not yet chewed apart.

sky_hlv posted a photo: