After the day before we visited a part of Yosemite National Park, the next day we gave it to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, located in the southern part of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, in California.
As with Yosemite Park, we had to make reservations ahead of time on recreation.gov and paid a $30/car entrance fee.
The parks stand out for its giant sequoia trees, with heights of over 100 m, which can reach ages of 3500 years.
Sequoia National Park is home to five of the ten largest trees in the world, including the General Sherman tree, the largest tree on Earth by volume, estimated to be about 2,200 years old.
The tree has a height of 83 m and a base circumference of 31 m, and the volume is estimated at 1487 cubic meters.
General Sherman is part of the “Giant Forest“, where another 8,000 sequoias, also called “mammoth trees“, stand out for their size.
We left the huge trees behind and headed towards Zumwalt Meadow, an oasis where the green vegetation contrasts beautifully with the multicolored wildflowers and granite mountains.
Another stop was at Hume Lake. We were lucky that it was free and we could relax for a few minutes in peace by the lake. It is a beautiful area with fresh mountain air that is definitely worth a stop.
Being by car, we followed our route on Kings Canyon Scenic Drive (Highway 180), from where we admired the beauty of the canyon.
On the way we stopped at several viewpoints, one of them being Junction View. From here you can see amazing views down into Kings Canyon, where the river rises through the towering mountains.
The last stop was Grizzly Falls. The parking lot is just two minutes from the waterfall, so you don’t have to make an effort to admire the beauty of the water pouring down the mountain. There is also a picnic area here, with tables and benches, where you can stop for a snack, listening to the sound of the waterfall in the background.
If you come to the West Coast of America and you like to spend time in nature, you should not miss Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Whether you want to relax, hike, photograph or avoid the crowds of big cities, this is the ideal place whatever the season.
After spending two days in the middle of nature where we recharged our batteries, we headed to one of the busiest cities in the United States: Los Angeles.
(Sequoia National Park – August 2021)
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