简介
This very easy stroll through the conifer forests of the San Bernardino Mountains leads to the world’s largest-known lodgepole pine. Between the Santa Ana River Canyon in the south and Big Bear Lake in the north rises a well-watered, thickly forested plateau reminiscent of the Tahquitz Creek plateau in the San Jacinto Mountains. Lush meadows and several small, willow-clad streams enrich this interesting plateau. This leisurely downhill walk leads hikers to the largest-known lodgepole pine, standing at the edge of the largest meadow on the plateau. Lodgepole pines—easily identified by needles in bundles of two and by their scaly, light-orange to light-brown bark—are usually found on dry, well-drained slopes above the 8,500-foot level in southern California’s mountains but occasionally invade wet meadows at lower elevations. The lodgepole pines on this plateau are among the finest specimens anywhere.