Walking down to the campground yesterday I noticed something different on the trail. Some bare wood caught my eye next to a tree trunk, like a giant split log. I had never seen something on that scale before.
Looking around I noticed a lot of broken branches on the ground. Finally, I started to realize what I was looking at. The top part of the tree (anything that forked off the trunk) had dropped clean off the trunk, and 20 feet of the trunk was still standing intact. Some of the odder "branches" were smaller trees that had been taken down by the larger one.
Later I came in from the other side and noticed that the trunk had receding bark up to the point of sheer with a smooth underlayer exposed, similar to trees that I have seen struck by lightning?
I had never seen something like this before so if anyone has any thoughts let me know.
Thanks for reading and God bless!
I'm not seeing what it is that you're describing in your picture - but it sounds like yep - lightning!
or - just the weight of it pulled it down? did you see any burn marks anywhere?
@dreemsteem, for the @welcomewagon
No noticeable burns but I did see bark that had "peeled back" like I have seen on other trees that have gotten struck. It was oddly high in the air though.
so interesting.. but could it be peeled back just from falling over? buckling right there and... who knows! hahahaha i have no idea :)
its a mystery! neat that you noticed it! how many things do people just pass by? :)