Sequoia & Kings Canyon National parks

May 24th, 2022

Sequoia & Kings Canyon have the world’s largest and oldest trees plus huge mountains, rugged foothills, deep canyons, vast caverns. The General Sherman tree is a giant sequoia tree located in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park and is the largest known living single-stem tree on Earth. It is estimated to be around 2,200 to 2,700 years old. The General Grant tree is the largest giant sequoia in the General Grant Grove section of Kings Canyon National Park and the second largest giant sequoia tree in the world at 1,650 years old. There was a fire here last year but that is part of life with these trees.

On Wednesday we left Porterville and headed North. Our GPS had us go to Visalia then to highway 254. A two lane, to a very narrow two lane to a one lane with no guard rails, up and down left and right, and hair-pin turns. Oh, and along the way we met two semi’s with cattle or something; just about had a heart-attack. What the heck were they doing on this road… farmers.

We went to the the Foothills Visitor’s Center then on up to General Sherman’s Tree stopping along the way at various places. Then on Thursday we went up to Kings Canyon and General Grants Tree. These things are huge. It is interesting that on the way there you hit the sand hills, then foot hills, then more substantial hills, then mountains and you are going up up and up… but no Sequoias. Then when you get to the top there they are (6,000-7,000 feet), incredible, huge, giant redwoods that the winding road passes through. Just unbelievable… don’t know what else to say… like a fairy tale or something. You should plan a visit to this one before you are long and gone. Enjoy the photos.

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