Finally! It may have taken until Labor Day,
but I finally got a to take a long weekend this summer to visit a new (to me) National Park. Parks actually, since Kings Canyon and Sequoia are two adjacent National Parks managed together. I love the Sierras, and these parks just may rival Yosemite as my favorite NP! There were so many highlights to this trip, that this will have to be a multi-part post.
Giant Forest
First, the “main attraction” of Sequoia National Park. Giant Sequoias are ridiculously huge, and the park has several prime examples of these trees, which are native only to limited areas of the Sierras and live for millennia. Leave it to a Giant Sequoia to make even the 200-ft sugar pine beside it look tiny. The Giant Forest is one of the most accessible groves in the park and home to the “General Sherman” tree, the most massive tree on Earth! There is parking at the Sherman Tree, and it’s also a stop on the park shuttle, which runs every 15 min in summer. From General Sherman, there are paved and unpaved trails that loop through nearby trees. The popular “Congress Trail” has several named trees and groves, including the President, the House, and the Senate, but in all honesty, it’s just as easy to be impressed by the unnamed bystanders. From points along the Congress Trail, there are also trails that lead further into the forest as well as a ~2 mile-trail back to the Giant Forest Museum (if we had planned better, i.e. carried snacks for me, we would have taken the shuttle one way and hiked back).
Of course, the sequoia groves also provide ample opportunity to spot several little forest critters. We saw several chipmunks, squirrels, and birds, including the white-headed woodpecker below defacing the McKinley tree. While dwarfed by the giant sequoias, it’s also worth noting the other trees of the ecosystem such as the sugar pines, with their long pine cones hanging off the ends of tall branches.
Lodgepole
Further into Sequoia National Park is the Lodgepole area, which has a visitor’s center, campground, market, and other facilities. Lodgepole is one of two places where you can get tickets for the Crystal Cave tour (the other is the Foothills VC near the southern entrance), but we didn’t have time for that one this trip. If you do plan to go into the cave, read the current restrictions on clothing and equipment before you go as efforts are underway to prevent the spread of white-nose syndrome from bat colonies in the Eastern US.
From Lodgepole, we got our hiking legs warmed up on the trail to Tokopah Falls, a relatively easy 3.6-mile (round trip) trail that departs from the bridge at the end of the Lodgepole campground area roadway. While the waterfall was dry, the trail is a nice shaded path that follows the Marble Fork of the Kaweah River with a little bit of uphill, particularly as you approach the falls area. At the beginning of the trail, we could see where the campground continued up the other side of the river, and it looked like there were some pleasant campsites there. In the late morning, there didn’t seem to be too many insects, which was not the case everywhere in the park – definitely needed some bug spray on this trip!
The Generals Highway
This scenic main drive winds its way through both parks and allows you to see most of the crowd favorites. Of course, the highway really only graces the Western side of the park, so there’s plenty more to explore on future visits (perhaps if my friends succeed in making a backpacker out of me…). Along the Generals Highway, you can whet your appetite for the backcountry by stopping at some pretty nice overlooks like these:
Sequoia Passport Cancellations
Passport stamps are available at Lodgepole & Foothills Visitors Centers (nice bonus stamp, too) and at the Giant Forest museum. There are also reportedly stamps at the Crystal Cave and Mineral King – guess I’ll just have to go back!
