White Bark Pine Trunks

Description

Brimstone Basin is a geothermal area primarily consisting of fumaroles. When the bare sterile soil here is dry it squeaks underfoot as one walks among the dead mineralized trees killed by shifting thermal activity. Most of the trees in and around the basin are white bark pine, which produce cones full of nutritious seeds. The dead trees on the harsh hillsides have become severely weathered and checked with reddish brown and black stains. Many times the trees sprout and grow in dense clumps. They may have come from a single cone that held dozens of seeds or from a squirrel’s forgotten winter cache. Sharing a spot eight feet across, these five trees have blended and embraced for over two hundred years.