Nature's Yose-ue

bonsaial1

My wife and I had nothing to do on Saturday. We decided to drive to the BIG trees, since we hadn't been there in about 8 years. It's about an 1 1/2 hour drive from our home at 7000 feet in elevation. Nice and cool compared to the valley floor at over 102 degrees. My wife and I sit on the fence in front of a group called "The Happy Family".

__________________
A tree a day...thats all we ask.

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The sun streaming in through the gracefull branches of the happy family. These trees are around 190 feet tall and have trunks that vary in size around 18 feet in diameter. They were all started from seed around the same time, some 1800 years ago.

__________________
A tree a day...thats all we ask.

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The mixed conifer forest. A few giant sequoia's thrown in for size comparison. Looks like a scene out of Jurrasic Park. This is how the Earth looked before the last Ice Age.

__________________
A tree a day...thats all we ask.

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The forest floor is covered with an immense array of native wild flowers. Azeala, Dogwood, Rhododendron, Bottle Brush, and this Wild Honeysuckle, grow in close proximity to the big trees!

__________________
A tree a day...thats all we ask.

bonsaial1

If you live in the Mid-west and have never seen a lightning struck 200 foot tall tree, then I offer this photo as a blueprint to carving a jinned top conifer. It would be pretty hard to improve upon Nature with these two tree's.

__________________
A tree a day...thats all we ask.

bonsaial1

A first glimpse at general Grant. Christened The "Nations Christmas Tree" by President Calvin Coolidge. The General Grant is 40.3 feet in diameter at the base and 267 feet tall. It is the third largest living thing on Earth. A person could build 40 average sized 5 room houses from its wood. Thats a lot of wood. Too bad it's too brittle to be used in construction. There were a lot of these trees that had been logged out at the turn of the century, but the cutting was suspended when it was found that the wood was too brittle. I'd say we were lucky, these few have been spared for future generations to enjoy.

__________________
A tree a day...thats all we ask.

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My wife and I at the base of Grant. I can remember as a kid sitting and climbing on the tree. This practise has been suspended due to the shallow root systems these tree employ. The roots of these monsters only reach about 5 feet under the ground and are contained in a circle about 50 feet from the trunk.

__________________
A tree a day...thats all we ask.

bonsaial1

The huge apex of the tree as seen from the North side of the tree. These branches are about 7 feet in diameter. The tree is estimated to be around 2100 years old.

__________________
A tree a day...thats all we ask.

bonsaial1

My wife at the burned out base of the Robert E. Lee. This tree is a little smaller at 40 feet in diameter. 254 feet high. These trees sometimes endure fire year after year. Fires in the park are rare, and the practise of stopping them has been discouraged. The huge stands of white fir that are taken out due to fire have thrived in the park. The dense canopy and no ash on the ground, and no fire to make the seeds pop from the sequoia cones has meant that no new sequoia seedlings have been spotted for 22 years.

__________________
A tree a day...thats all we ask.