pando

when i drove my car out to california from minnesota, i insisted we take a massive detour to fishlake national forest in utah to see what is perhaps the most superlative tree of all trees: pando. believed to be the largest living organism on earth, she is a grove of aspen “trees” that are actually all one tree, and each trunk is merely a stem of a single plant. we car camped on the edge of pando and ended up sleeping upright in the front seats of my tiny car most of the night because we heard mountain lions screaming. despite the terror, pando was beautiful! but apparently she is dying because the deer are feasting on her, so visit soon and wish her a speedy and full recovery ❤️‍🩹