Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks

When the kids initially did their research for where they wanted to go on this part of the trip, G rooted for Sequoia National Park.  I had said no because it's so far south in CA, and I didn't want to get hit with the heat.  But at Pine Meadows (Cottage Grove, OR), our camp host convinced me that we really needed to head to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks.  He was so excited about it, he had spent a lot of time there as a kid, that I just said we should go for it.  What a beautiful place.  What polluted air.  Despite it being a HUGE forest of HUGE trees, the air quality there is horrible.  My allergies, which have been so mild on this trip, were raging.  I had several nights where sleep was elusive because I was so congested.  So while the temperatures were perfect and the parks were gorgeous, we decided not to extend our visit beyond our originally paid for four nights.  

Pinecones larger than NB's head, holy cow!  At a ranger talk the kids learned that these are sugar pine cones.  The one they have on display at the visitor center over at Sequoia National Park is even bigger.  We stayed at the Azalea campground in Grant Grove, Kings Canyon National Park.  Kings Canyon is the less crowded park, and the Grant Tree is within walking distance of the Grant Grove campgrounds.  It was easy peasy for us to get a first come first served spot, the campground has 110, all non-reservable, spots.  I wish we had spent more time picking our spot, because while it was beautiful, it was on the shuttle route for the park.  We had buses going right by our spot from 9am to 6pm everyday.  Every half hour.  There are some amazingly rocky spots, too, where NB would have enjoyed climbing and such.  Definitely some quieter spots than what we chose.        

Grant Tree is the widest base sequoia measured, at 40 feet in circumference at the base.  After seven weeks together, I needed a break from the crowd and did this walk on my own.  Bill and the kids also went, though we never saw each other until the walk back to the campsite.  It was nice to walk in the forest with all the quiet and laugh at all the goony things tourists do.  My favorite was a guy (20s or 30s?) who climbed into a stump whose insides had decayed.  He stood up inside it (the stump was only maybe 2 feet tall), and he was in up to his chest.  Pretty awesome.          

We travelled to General Sherman on the Sequoia side.  General Sherman is the biggest sequoia by weight and volume of lumber.  Sequoias have a relatively shallow root system, so the most popular forests are fenced off to give the trees the chance to survive their own popularity.  Sequoias don't die of old age, either, they usually get too big to support themselves and fall over.            

Just to give you a sense of scale, this is a "smaller" tree that fell and had a tunnel cut out of it.  Adults can walk through it without trouble, too.  There was a tree tunnel large enough to drive through, but it decayed enough to collapse, and so that tunnel is no more.              

This stump didn't attract a lot of attention, General Sherman is the star of this show, but I was simply amazed by this section of a trunk.  It is absolutely huge.  And because it's a section, and they're not worried about preserving a root system, you can walk right up to it and touch it.  A way better experience than just looking at a big tree, if you ask me.             Overall, it was an amazing adventure for us.  There's still so much we didn't do there, too, that if you visit, plan for a good long time to see all the sights and soak up the forests.  Great place to camp.  I vote for the Kings Canyon side.