The Methuselah Walk begins just behind the temporary visitor center, with the new center under construction and scheduled for opening in the summer of 2012.
The Methuselah Walk is a bit over 4 miles. It starts around 10,000 feet elevation, drops to around 9,600 feet, then climbs back up in a loop to rejoin the trailhead, making for about 800 feet in total elevation change. The trail is well-maintained and has a few steep stretches but is, for the most part, an easy hike.
The walk is self-guided, and a full-color booklet is available at the trailhead. The numbered trail markers correspond to entries in the booklet, and each stop provides educational insight into the life of a bristlecone pine. In addition, each page also offers unique facts about the White Mountains and the flora and fauna of the forest.
As you begin to appreciate just how old the trees surrounding the trail are, a sense of wonder and amazement envelops you. Our son is a huge history buff, and for him, it was a chance to imagine what the trees might have heard "through the grapevine", so to speak. In the picture below, he is channeling Ramses II at the Battle of Kadesh.
Linking the trees to history, if only in our imagination, really made the hike come to life.
This was my personal favorite tree - dubbed the "angry ent".
A bit past the half-way point, you enter the grove where Shulman located a bristlecone pine whose age he estimated at almost 4,700 years!
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