Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

We spent a day driving from Utah to central California, to be at the gate for Sequoia National Park at opening (7am). We sped up this part of a trip due to a potential job getting a little emphatic. This sadly meant missing joining my Uncle Neal and Jay at their place in Palm Springs for a few days (of which we still need to make up SOON!). While it was a very long day of driving, it was gorgeous, especially Interstate 15S through Arizona!

The entrance to the park is in the region of orange, olive, and grape growing heaven! We enjoyed some awesome dinner at The Anvil BBQ!

We did Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park during the same excursion, as they are immediately adjacent each other, and the main road connects the two. Fair warning, Generals Highway (the main road) is INSANELY curvy, thus slow going.

Seriously, the sequoias, and the parks are rather a mind warp because everything looks familiar…it is a forest…but the scale is SOOOOOO far from normal. Everything reminds you of East Coast conifer forests: Pine trees, pine cones, etc, but everything is MASSIVE. It’s odd, because you know to expect this, yet, you don’t quite grasp what you are seeing. Does that make sense? It gives you a sense of existing in a distorted reality. And it is awesome.

There isn’t much hiking to be done, other than the Sherman Tree Trail, but rather slowly driving a slow winding road through the gorgeous mountains. We did pull off a few times, just to enjoy the views, and take in the expanse.

Look at my tiny husband!!!

Having survived many wildfires