Big tree thread

[hank4elk]

Been fortunate enough to see the oldest,the tallest,the largest trees ,known. Had some Coast live oaks & Laurel trees that covered an acre with the canopies on my place in SLO county.You could see the trees from sat. pics.
I still stumble into some massive trees here in SW NM. 12' based Alligator Junipers,60' pinions...where a 6" diameter tree could be 100 yrs old.

 

[DRS]

This a cottonwood I found while turkey hunting in Kansas in 2016

 

[BrentD]

In my part of the world, the trees are not huge, but more importantly, they are being strangled to death. At one time they grew in the open and you can still see the signs of this in their form. But now, they are being strangled and smothered by younger, aggressive trash trees. The best ones are already gone or only their skeletons remain.

Now, they look 1000 times more interesting than the trees around them, but they are doomed.

 

[Northwoods]

Great thread. One of the biggest white pines in the area is in the background of this photo. I didn’t realize the tree was in the picture until a few people told me they know what lake I fish.

 

[ShortAction]

Sequoia/King's Canyon NP in CA is definitely on my 'Go back to...someday' list. Home of the world's largest tree.

The cedars at Ross Creek (near Libby, MT) aren't bad either.

 

[BrentD]

I don't have a photo of it, but someone at UNL (Nebraska-Lincoln), years ago, gave a talk using photos he had found in archives that were at least 100 yrs old. He then went out and repeated those photos in the 1990s. One particular pair of photos that I will never forget was of a small juniper on a bluff. After 100 yds, it was unchanged. Right down to the smallest branches in the first photo - smaller than my little finger - they were identical. The tree has been suspended in time. Not growing, not shrinking. Not even the smallest twigglets had changed. I makes me wonder how old that tree really was.

 

[MTTW]

Back in the 80s we drove out to the coast to see this tree. I don't think that tree is there anymore. I no longer have the car either. The pic is a little fuzzy, much like my memory.

 

[hank4elk]

I don't have a photo of it, but someone at UNL (Nebraska-Lincoln), years ago, gave a talk using photos he had found in archives that were at least 100 yrs old. He then went out and repeated those photos in the 1990s. One particular pair of photos that I will never forget was of a small juniper on a bluff. After 100 yds, it was unchanged. Right down to the smallest branches in the first photo - smaller than my little finger - they were identical. The tree has been suspended in time. Not growing, not shrinking. Not even the smallest twigglets had changed. I makes me wonder how old that tree really was.

I have a book,Fire in Sierra Nevada Forests, with photos from very 1st in 1800's and taken again 100 years later from exact same spot. Way fewer trees back then and some are still in the pics.
Seen some monsters way back in the Sierras, 12' diameter Sugar pines,10' Ponderosa's, firs even bigger. Then there are the Giants, Sequoia's, 20'+ diameter.
Sat next to Methusila a few times,the oldest living known thing on earth. Bristlecone Pine in White Mtns of CA.

 

[shumhow]

I'm pretty sure this was a yellow cedar - its from POW Alaska

 

[shrapnel]

Lightning struck...

 

[Paul in Idaho]

This old tree offered good shade while glassing.

 

[jabber]

Here is another tree that is from the Charleston SC area.

 

[El Jason]

 

[El Jason]

 

[RidgeRoamingRichard]

Trekking poles at the base for scale.

 

[MarvB]

Had a good sized juniper on the place. Gent down the road has got a little sawmill set up at his place and he slabbed it for me, building a bar for the man cave. Almost 20” wide; he milled it at 2” thick and about 9’ long

 

[R.K.]

Really wish I had some photos of the sycamores I used to run across in the Ozarks. There are a relatively fast growing tree, but they are true kings of the riverbottoms when you see them- they tower over everything around them, white branches standing out against either green or gray surroundings depending on the season. I've seen several I would easily put it 6 ft in diameter, and a few that would be even larger.

 

[BigHornRam]

 

[JTHOMP]

Big live oaks are common in the south, but I've never see a big one in the woods until this one. It grew deep in the Atchafalaya Basin on a piece of higher ground between two swamps. Most live oaks are wide but short since they grew in open areas. This one had to compete for sunlight. As with probably everyone else's photo, this photo does not do its size justice. I had it marked on a GPS that I have since lost. I know the general area it's in, but I would really like to see this tree again.

 

[BrentD]

View attachment 169694

Do you notice how this tree spirals up and to the right?

If you look around, you will almost never find one that goes up and to the left. I don't know why. Maybe some species go one way, some another, but all of those that I see having really well defined spirals are up and to the right. I've looked and asked for an explanation, but never got a satisfactory one.