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Giant Sequoia Trees
Two Sequoia Trees and me!Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks are located 4 hours South East of the Bay Area and 4 hours North East of Los Angeles area. They are two neighboring national parks. Amongst these two, Sequoia National Park is more accessible and visited. Whereas, 80% of Kings Canyon is not accessible by road, and requires wilderness permits.
These two national parks were on our "to-visit" list for quite a while. Mainly, because of Sequoia National Park's biggest and oldest trees in the world, and secondly due to it's close location from San Jose.
We had a spontaneous plan of visiting these two national parks while going home from work. We decided to leave as soon as possible, spend a night in a motel near Sequoia, and spend the next whole day visiting these two places. We hurried to home, and booked a room in Comfort Inn in Three Rivers, just 6-7 miles outside the South entrance of Sequoia National Park. We reached there at 11:30 pm. The hotel is quite decent. Room was comfortable, and free continental breakfast the next day was not bad! We had an early start and reached Sequoia around 8 am.
Our first stop was,
the visitor center at Ash Mountain. We gathered some information about places to be visited within a day. This national parks can be divided into four areas: Ash Mountain area, Giant Sequoia forest, Grant Grove area, and Cedar Grove area. All of them are 1 hours away respectively! Ash Mountain is the southern entrance and visitor center area, whereas, Grant Grove Village is towards the north entrance of the parks. Cedar grove is near the inner road end in Kings Canyon.
Giant Sequoia forest area is one of the most visited area amongst the tree. It hosts famous destinations like - Moro Rock, General Sherman Tree (biggest tree known), Giant Trees Museum, Tunnel Log, and number of huuuuuuuuuge Sequoia Trees. There are number of vistas en-route as well.
Tunnel Log is the log of the fallen Sequoia tree, carved to make a tunnel for vehicles. People drive by this tunnel and take pictures with it. The museum displays some very nice exhibits about the history of the area, the Sequoia Trees, and wildlife.
Moro Rock is a granite monolith, which can be climbed by 350-400 steps. It is approximately more than 6000 feet tall. This short hike
General Sherman Tree
Compare people standing nearby with the tree! of 0.25 miles can be quite strenuous! However, the vista atop the rock is worth the energy! You can see number of peaks of the Sierra-Nevada range and the valley of Sequoia forests. We took a lot of pictures on this short hike.
General Sherman is the biggest Sequoia tree in the world in terms of volume. It is 276 feet tall and 39.5 feet wide at the base! Volume of the trunk is considered to be 1487 cubic meters! It is approximately 2300 to 2600 years old!!!
Crystal Cave is also located in the same area. However, it was closed on that day. If you plan to visit it, make sure that you buy its tickets from Lodgepole Visitors Center or Ash Mountain Visitor Center before you get to the cave.
Next we drove to Lodgepole visitor center for our lunch. There are two options in this area: Lodgepole fast food corner & Deli, and a restaurant in Wuksachi Village. We grabbed some Pizzas and Burger at the Lodgepole.
We next drove north to a Kings Canyon overlook. After another 15 minutes of drive, we reached the Grant Grove Village in Kings Canyon. It also
hosts a small exhibit about the wildlife and geology of the area. It is 2 miles away from General Grant Tree. General Grant Tree trail is similar to the General Sherman tree. However, it has more sequoia trees on the trail. General Grant tree is believed to be the widest tree! It is also world's third biggest tree. It is honored as Nation's Christmas Tree!
We still had couple of hours before the sunset, and we did not want to miss out on the waterfalls of the Kings Canyon! Although tired, we started east inside the Kings Canyon. Kings canyon road is the only road going inside the Kings Canyon. That also, for 38 miles only. It ends at Kanawyers. You can explore on foot after that with wilderness permits.
Kings Canyon is amazingly beautiful! It consists granite rocks, carved by glaciers. Especially in the evening, the colors of the rocks were adding so much to the beauty! The road winds down from 6000' elevation to 4000' and runs parallel to the gushing waters of Kings River.
We stopped at Grizzly Falls on the Kings river. Due to lack of sunlight and lots of mist, it was
cold out there! But, really beautiful! One of the best waterfalls I have seen so far!
Next, we went to Rushing River Fall. This water fall was in true sense rushing! Like a roller coaster, you can see it takes a sharp turn and thrashes onto a big rock, before the drop. Provides plenty of photo opportunities!
While driving back, we could see wonderful sunset through the granite canyons! The photos cannot do justice to its beauty!
Some useful Information:
•
Sequoia National Park & Kings Canyon National Park Where to Stay:
• Inside Sequoia National Park:
Wuksachi Lodge • Inside Kings Canyon National Parl:
Grant Grove Cabins & John Muir Lodge •
Outside the parks; There are other options also. Town of Visalia, Tulure, Three Rivers, Squaw Valley, etc. are nearby; I stayed in Three Rivers, which was few minutes from the entrance!
Gas:
• Fill up your tank in Visalia or Three Rivers if coming from the South entrance, or at Squaw Valley if coming from the North entrance. There are couple of gas station inside the National Park/Forest (one near hume lake and one inside the Kings Canyon on kings-canyon highway). However, they will be really costly!
Where to Eat?
• Lodgepole Village Visitor Center serves Pizza, Burgers, Fries, etc.
• Wuksachi Lodge Restaurant is
Sun Set
Sun Set at Kings Canyon a full service high-end restaurant. It also has a small store for snacks.
• Grant Grove Village also hosts a restaurant.
• Kings Canyon Lodge has a small Restaurant/Bar.
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david
non-member comment
Group travel
Your photos are gorgeous. However, with travel costs so high it is difficult to go. How can groups get together to visit these places? Regards, David