Way up above 10,000 ft. (over 3,000m) in the White Mountains live the world's oldest living things: the Ancient Bristlecone Pines. Their knobby, gnarly branches reach forever towards the sky.

The stark, barren landscape was not difficult to hike through, but the thin air did make breathing more challenging. The weather at that altitude is decidedly colder than on the valley floor, and that is what these trees need to survive. Some of these trees are more than 4,000 years old.