My Madrone Tree

by Kate Niebauer
(San Francisco, CA, USA)

My husband and I just returned from a magical trip in Yosemite, one of our favorite places to go backpacking.

It is here that I first fell in love with the Madrone tree. We sat beside her for a while and I couldn't take my eyes off of her. It still brings tears to my eyes. We continued to notice these trees and all of the various expressions of life and death in the amorphous bark and the branches reaching with passionate longing for the sun.

I have attached a photo here of a very unusual tree. I am still not sure if this is a Madrone. It has the beautiful red bark swirling amidst what looks like slowly dying parts of branches. Will you tell me if this is, in fact, a Madrone?

Thank you for this wonderful site, I will visit it frequently!

- Kate