I was recently out West where I saw this:
Closer inspection revealed that this structure sheltered a large chunk of tree trunk.
This was once the largest Ponderosa Pine tree.
There are many of these tree-trunk-as-timelinse around the country, usually with the same historical milestones on it.
There is the “Wow, that’s old” factor that first strikes when you look at these timelines, but my eye invariable heads to the bark of the trunk, and how this tree once stood vertically and reached for sky and exhaled its waste product (oxygen) to our benefit, and now it’s a dead curiosity.
The hope is that seeing this make people experience the majesty of trees, but honestly, it depresses me as much as this photo…
What goes through your mind when you see these?