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The highest point is White Mountain Peak, which at 14,252 feet (4344 m) [1] is the third-highest in California. The peak is located at approximately 37°38'2"N, 118°15'20"W. There is a four-wheel drive road that reaches the summit from the south, and services the "Summit Laboratory" of the White Mountain Research Station . The west face is a scramble.
Ecologically, the White Mountains are like the other ranges in the Basin and Range Province; they are dry, with relatively few trees, but the upper slopes hold open forests of mainly Great Basin bristlecone pine with some Limber pine and Lodgepole pine, and of Single-leaf pinyon and Utah juniper50-55 species; see text. Junipers are coniferous plants in the genus Juniperus of the cypress family Cupressaceae. There are about 50-55 species of juniper, widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere, from the arctic, south to tropical Africa i on the middle slopes. One of the bristlecone pines, nicknamed 'Methuselah', is the oldest known tree in the world, about 4,700 years old.
The entire range is within the Inyo National Forest .