Oak tree in Hendersonville, NC

 We found this tree up on a mountain top while walking in Hendersonville, NC. the day after Christmas.

Mike I'v only seen 4 oaks that age. One the treaty oak in Austin that is protected and 2 at Williamsburg. Now that one. Thats about in rough estimation over 100 yrs old. Wow, Thats nice. How was the hike?

Here are some shots of mine:

This pic was taken near my ridgetop North Carolina tipi and it shows the biggest locust tree I've ever seen.

The trail to my tipi went past this big old Oak and it formed a little archway under a few broken limbs.

Here's a shot of Little Mitten with the big Kilmer trees.

And another one.  When a forest is left well enough alone, it can grow to tremendous size.

Found another one:

This was taken last year on a Slickrock wilderness trip and a tie in with the Kilmer memorial loop.

This is an old Alligator Juniper on the south side of Mt Elden here near Flagstaff AZ. Much of these kinds of tree's look dead but there's generally some part maybe just one single branch that will still be green.

There's one up on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon thats over 400 years old. It could have been a sapling when the Spaniards first saw the canyon in the 1600s.

Called Alligator because the bark looks like the back of an Alligator.

Those are some great old trees, I would like to see the history they have seen.

The oldest tree I thought of is called the Methuselah a Bristlecone pine in California, but while researching it I found the second link below

 Methuselah (estimated germination 2832 BC)

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Methuselah_(tree)

Swedish spruce may be world's oldest living tree

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1190625120080411

Glad you got out for your Christmas hike, Mike.

That is great old tree. I have seen a bunch of old ones around TN and NC that I love. One of the biggest I have ever seen, barring the giants in Joyce Kilmer, was a Swamp Chestnut Oak, a type of White Oak, out in an abandoned farm feild near Collegdale, TN.

I have some photos of me with those same massive Tulip Poplars, Tipi :) Do you know if that Locust was a Black Locust or Honey Locust? Either way, it is huge. Growing up we had a bunch of big old Black Locusts on the wooded ridge behind our house. The wood of the Black locust is incredibly dense, and is one of the hardest woods in the world. Strangely enough, the Black locust is also exceedingly fast growing. Usually fast growing trees yeild very soft wood.

Gonzan--I think it's a black locust and it had many little trees all around it on the hillside.  In fact, back in the early 1990's I used a dozen or more of the small diameter locust trees for tipi poles and found them all to have carpenter ant tunnels.  Most knots had holes which the ants used.  The tunnels didn't affect the overall strength of the poles and when the trees are young they grow amazingly straight and perfect for lodge poles, although they are very heavy.

There is a valley oak here in Visalia that is close to 8' diameter, I need to get a picture of it.

There was a bristlecone pine older than Methuselah.  It was the Prometheus tree in the Wheeler Peak grove in what is now Great Basin NP.  A brilliant researcher from the University of North Carolina was having difficulty getting a good bore sample for age determination (in the 1960s) so he got permission from the forest service to cut it down to see how old it was.  They counted 4844 rings, and the center of the trunk was gone (abraded by milennia of sand and ice being blown against it).  Estimated actual age was 4950, so it was about 100 years older than Methuselah.

One of the bigger trees in the Sierra middle elevations is the Sugar Pine, which can reach over 240'.  Here is a friend next to a mature specimen:

Of course, just up the hill from my house are some bigger trees, here's an example:

Now them's are big trees!

Here is an incredible tree that stands less than a mile from my home on what is now sacred and protected land on the Pechangan Tribe Reservation near Temecula, CA. It is difficult to get to now as great caution is being taken to protect it from destructive, disease carrying beatles. It looks like a grove of trees that have grown close together, but it is only one tree! Info below the pictures

Not me but someone else underneath the canopy...

The Great Oak is the largest natural-growing, indigenous coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia ) wi'aashal tree in the United States and is estimated to be anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 years old, making it one of the oldest oak trees in the world. The tree has been used by countless generations as a gathering place. The Great Oak area, Wi'aasha, is home to numerous culturally sensitive, historical and archaeological sites, including tribal interment sites from time immemorial.

The ancient Great Oak is a living, growing entity. An environmental wonder that continues to branch out, its roots continue to expand to keep it standing. When approaching the tree from a distance, what appear to be smaller trees around a larger tree are really the whole tree's heavy spreading beams laying on the ground and rising up again in a circle of growth. The dark foliage has provided countless generations with welcome shade from the hot summer sun. In the center is the massive trunk, which is 26 feet around. Each branch, larger than most live oak trunks, rises up 96 feet, comes down to rest on the ground, and then rises up again to form the massive outer canopy. The canopy's circumference is over 650 ft and has a diameter of 216 feet! 

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