Having an interest in plant identification & their relationship to the topography, I had for some time been wanting to venture into the high Klamath Mountains to locate the foxtail pine.  This view shows a grove of nearly all foxtail pines (Pinus balfouriana) on the southern slopes of China Mountain near Gazelle, California.  They suddenly started appearing everywhere after the summit area itself was all whitebark pine (which I often find in the Cascades & Warner Mountains).  Foxtail pine are a near-threatened species found only in California & are related to Great Basin bristlecone pines.  There is a northern population found in isolated pockets in the Klamath Mountains & a southern population in the southern Sierra Nevada near Mount Whitney, a separation of over 400 miles.  The ones found here in the Klamath Mountains grow from 6,000-9,000 feet (this population just below 8,000 feet) on south facing slopes.  Needles are in bundles of 4-5 & the cones are 2.5-4.5 inches long, forming on the end of the limbs & having a nice lightweight symmetry when dry.  The trees have a height of 30-70 feet & don't grow a standard shape, often growing at obtuse angles.  Many of the tops here are angled & shaped from the wind.