Those trees are pointing downslope, in the direction of an avalanche decades ago, that swept across Tioga road. The logs were carried out into the open meadow, where the avalanche terminated.
Doggone, this topic sent me off Googling for pictures, and there are few to none. Here's the only one I could find, from Wikipedia's "
Avalanche" description:
Wikipedia's caption:
"Periodic winter avalanches on this 800 m high slope transport woody debris to the flat in the foreground." (Click on picture to see larger version)
When you come upon one of these avalanche zones, you can see most of the trees tops are pointing in the direction of the avalanche flow. This is likely due to two things: The tree first snapped in the direction of the avalanche flow, and, the effect of their stumps dragging along (as an anchor), while the lighter tops were carried forward by the tumbling snow of the avalanche.
Here's an image of Google's satellite view of the spot + @ti2d is talking about:
You can see the darker areas (trees) on the left (west) side of the road. The lighter areas are where the avalanche stripped away the trees, moving to the right (eastward) across the road. The pointer on the picture shows the lighter objects (possibly the logs).
On the PCT between Sonora Pass and the Yosemite boundary to the south, I recall seeing numerous huge avalanche zones where we could see hundreds of trees all laying like toothpicks pointing downslope. I tried to find a satellite view of them, but the photos were taken with the area completely covered in snow.
Sometimes you can find a zone where the snow cover was several feet deep, and the avalanche flow ran on top of the snow cover. In those places, the trees are all snapped at a similar height, several feet above the ground.
I have seen other places where an avalanche simply piled ALL the trees in one huge jumble. I don't recall where it was (somewhere here on the west side), but I was on a hiking trail where the pile was a mess at least ten feet deep across the trail. Climbing over it was impossible, so we had to make a big bushwhacking detour around the area.
