On the Chickaming prairie, there is a mighty tree dwarfing all others. On our many visits, we had never noticed it before. Then, this day, we noticed a bulge on the horizon: the crown of an unusually tall and spreading oak.
Its grandeur was difficult to apprehend. The closer we got, the more humbling it was. With every step, it grew taller. By its yardstick, we were children.
To look up into its branches was dazzling. Each limb was itself as large as a tree, radiating with power and life’s energy. All we could do was wonder and admire. We didn’t think to theorize or measure. The tree had its own metaphysics, with itself at the center.
Chas Spain says
It’s tremendous to come across these giants.
Celia says
The awe they evoke. . . it’s deep.
Chas Spain says
Spent a little bit of time wandering around the botanical gardens in Geelong on the weekend – there were some quite extraordinarily strange and gigantic trees – a huge dragon tree held up by posts, bottle trees and monstrously thick eucalypts – wonderful.
Celia says
There’s a book floating around our house by a photographer who documents the great trees of the world. You probably have types of trees that put our old oaks to shame. . . . I love to think of that, somehow.
The part of Michigan where this was taken does have a few virgin forests, the few tracts not felled for lumber or farming when Michigan was settled in the 1800s. Once on a walk in one such forest we came across a group with measuring tapes, venturing off the paths, to document the girth of some of the largest trees. I guess there is a project to keep track, to find the oldest and biggest ones.
The tree in my post had an amazing trunk, which I will return to photograph another time. Many of the pictures I took on the day we discovered the tree were badly overexposed (as you can see from the third of the photos here). I am looking forward to going back when I can see the tree better. The day was dazzlingly bright!
Harley says
wow, that is one large (giant) tree ! Must be easy a couple of hundred years old-maybe pushing 300 !
Celia says
Some specimens in these parts did survive the arrival of settlers unscathed. . . . perhaps this tree was one of them? I like the mystery of not knowing.