I got a last minute call from a friend who wanted me to join him at Great Basin National Park near Ely, Nevada, to photograph the ancient bristlecone pine trees and the Milky Way galaxy. It was going to be a new moon and he had mapped out a remote bristlecone pine tree grove high on the flanks of Mt. Washington that was difficult to get to in daylight, and downright terrifying at night. Naturally I said sounds great and headed out the day I got back from a backpacking trip to the Bear Lakes Basin in the High Sierra, but that will be a different post. I drove the 7 hours out to Ely, Nevada, then up an old mining road to an abandoned mine where I met my friend. We then put my truck into 4×4 Lo Range, where it lived for the next two days as we slowly climbed an endless number of switchbacks cut into the side of the mountain with a sheer dropoff on one side and many of the turns so tight that I had to make several 3-point turns around the tight corners. After getting through the steep switchbacks, we continued to climb up the old road to near the summit of Mt. Washington. From where we left the car, it was a short climb of a couple hundred feet to gain the summit of Mt. Washington. From there we were looking across at the bristlecone pine forest about a mile away. The path leads along the ridgeline with a sheer cliff on one side and alternately mellow and super steep loose scree fields on the other side. Figuring we were going to have to hike out in the dark, as there is no camping in the bristlecones, we both set our GPS units to track our route. On the way back, in the pitch black, we would be following these little squiggly lines exactly to avoid getting too close to the cliffs.  The forest itself was in a depression, which mostly kept the wind at bay. Initially we thought it would prevent us from seeing the comet NEOWISE, but we were happily wrong about that. Great Basin National Park is one of the darkest areas around, with the nearest town (a very small town at that) at least 20 miles away. The milky way and the night sky were tremendous. Just as we were finishing shooting milky way shots over trees that we had scouted while it was still light, I turned around and noticed we could see the comet NEOWISE. We quickly switched gears and grabbed a few shots of it over an iconic bristlecone tree before it set. We headed out again the next night, but the clouds moved in and the experience wasn’t the same. All images are shot on a nikon D850 using either a 20mm f1/8 lens at f2.0 or my 70-200 at f2.8. With the telephoto lens, exposures had to be kept to around 8 seconds or the stars would start to blur. With the 20mm most exposures were at 20 seconds for the night shots. All of these images and many more can be licensed or purchased from my main landscape photography website.

The ancient Bristlecone pine forest on top of Mt. Washington in Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada, North America.

The comet NEOWISE in the Bristlecone pine forest on top of Mt. Washington.

The Milky Way Galaxy in the Bristlecone pine forest on top of Mt. Washington in Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada, North America.

The comet NEOWISE in the Bristlecone pine forest on top of Mt. Washington in Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada, North America.

Star trails in a long exposure in the Bristlecone pine forest on top of Mt. Washington in Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada, North America.

Sunrise on Lincoln peak from the top of Mt. Washington in Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada, North America.

Sunrise looking down the north and south fork of Big Wash from the top of Mt. Washington in Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada, North America.

The ancient Bristlecone pine forest on top of Mt. Washington in Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada, North America.

The ancient Bristlecone pine forest on top of Mt. Washington in Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada, North America.

The ancient Bristlecone pine forest on top of Mt. Washington in Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada, North America.

Sunrise looking down the north and south fork of Big Wash from the top of Mt. Washington in Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada, North America.

Sunrise looking down the north and south fork of Big Wash from the top of Mt. Washington in Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada, North America.