The big old trees of Golden Gate Park have been falling over the last several years -- some due to age alone, and many due to the strong winds and torrential rain of this past winter. It is the way of all things, of course. But even so, it's hard for a park lover, and a photographer fond of trees, when seemingly each new walk reveals another old friend stricken or down.
It has taken a while, but now the thinning of the canopy is becoming apparent even from a distance. The first of the following two north-facing photographs was taken from the 15th Avenue stairs (climbing from Kirkham to Lawton) in April of 2017. The second was taken from the same vantage point a few days ago, in May of 2023. What you see in the distance is Strawberry Hill, the island rising from Stow Lake in the park. The new gap-toothed look is clear from this angle.
If there is a silver lining in all of this, I suppose, it is the vistas that have opened from Strawberry Hill itself. The third of these images, south-facing, was captured in recent weeks from the hill's peak. And so the dense mystery of 140-year-old giants gives way to open views of the rolling City. Whether Strawberry Hill is reforested, or instead reverts to its native coastal prairie look, remains to be seen.