this fragment of bark, looking like the skin around an elephant’s eye, was falling off of a long-dead pine tree at a little over 8000 feet outside park city utah. the trunk was mostly bare and there were no needles, so identification has eluded me, especially since we live among eastern tree species here in minnesota, and with this specimen, i find myself in the realm of western species growing up near the tree line. if i had to hazard a guess, i would say whitebark pine. the altitude is right, but i can’t confirm definitively. i know it looks like poplar bark but it was definitely not a poplar or an aspen, based on the the shape of the trunk and the growth pattern of the very pine/spruce like branches. can anyone help me solve this mystery?

whitebark pine?

deer valley, utah