Gnarly Tree

[Marc St Louis]

We had a funeral to go to yesterday a couple hours away in Northern Quebec.  I'm the type of driver that looks at the scenery as I'm going along, makes my wife a bit nervous, and as we were going down the final stretch, which is quite hilly, I spotted a tree in a ravine.  The sight was striking.  I didn't want to stop and turn around but marked the spot to stop for some pictures on the return.  The ravine is about 60~80 feet deep and the tree, looks like a Maple, is maybe 3' across at the butt.  It's growing alongside a small stream the leads off to an open area about 100 yards away.  Something happened to it at some point, probably the top broke off, and it branches out just below the level of the road.  The pictures I took do not do the place justice.  It is a stunning spot.









P.S.  The lighting was poor on the return trip and all I had was my cell phone so I had to do a bit of image balancing

[helmet]

Cool picture Mark, I like trying to figure out what happened to old trees. That one certainly has a story!

[upstatenybowyer]

You should send a pic to Webster's Dictionary so they can put it under the word Gnarly.

[BowEd]

It's funny how I can plant tree after tree.Some make it/some fail too while most voluntary ones make it no matter what they got to go through.

[Hawkdancer]

Definitely gnarly!  We have some very old gnarly trees on our range landowners' place, that she said have been like that since she was little.  We think they are hackberry, but there isn't a straight piece anywhere.
Hawkdancer