The road up to the trailhead to get to the Bristlecone Pine grove opened just a few days before we got there. However, the trail (3 miles round trip) itself was still covered with 4-5 feet of snow, and was not marked. Fortunately, the trail runs basically due South so we used compasses to find our way. Ths snow was "mostly" packed so, though we had brought snowshoes, we decided not to use them. Occasionally though we would sink through! Here Janet is pretty tired after an uphill climb and worried that we were getting lost. After about 1/2 mile we found some track from a couple of rangers who had been out there a day or two earlier. We still checked compasses periodically, but the tracks we followed did go in the right direction.