We have heard horror stories about getting into National Parks, so we decided to depart from our hotel to Sequoia National Park early in the morning (6:30am). I wanted to make sure we weren't stuck in a line trying to get into the park or not be able to find parking at the big attractions.
We had originally thought about going to King's Canyon National Park first, but their visitor center didn't open until 9:00am. It looked like things opened up in Sequoia National Park much earlier, so we decided to go to Sequoia first.
The drive from Tulare, California to Sequoia National Park was pretty easy and quick. As always we love getting our picture taken with the entry sign to the park.
The first thing we did was stop to see a rock that you could walk, or possibly drive under. It's a pretty cool, large rock.
Next we went to Hospital Rock. This is a huge rock you could climb on and under, which had some cliff drawings.
We loved that someone put googly eyes on a bear warning sign.
After going to Hospital Rock, we went to the Giant Tree Museum. Unfortunately it was still closed due to COVID. However, we were able to take a nice walking tour of the Big Trees Trail. This trail was about a mile and a half and absolutely stunning. My girls loved it. They even got to climb on a large, fallen Sequoia tree.
After that, we boarded a shuttle bus for a quick ride to the General Sherman tree. We didn't need to take a shuttle, but it was available to us and saved us from some walking or driving.
The General Sherman tree is a huge attraction. It is the biggest tree in the world by volume. There was a lot of people there walking around and getting their picture taken with it.
Next we drove through Sequoia National Park to King's Canyon National Park.
I will warn you that there aren't many pictures taken within King's Canyon National Park. The reason being, the road in and out of there is scary steep and there are no guard rails. I have done some of the roads in Rocky Mountain National Park and that is child's play compared to Kings Canyon National Park road. It was awesome and amazing. No pictures can capture the pure size and beauty of this park.
While in the bottom of King's Canyon, we stopped at a waterfall that was real pretty named Grizzly Falls.
On the way out of King's Canyon National Park, we stopped at the other huge attraction in the area, the General Grant tree.
Although the General Grant tree was huge, there was another tree in the park (without a name) that you could walk up to and seemed even bigger. You had to walk through the inside of a Sequoia tree to get to this other tree.
The ride back to Visalia and Tulare from King's Canyon was nice. You pass a lot of fruit orchards. We stopped in Visalia's downtown area and ate at Brewbaker's Brewing Company, before buying the girls rolled ice cream next door and heading back to the hotel for some swimming.
Overall, it was an amazing day and the whole family loved it. Having been to Sequoia NP before, I was excited to share it with my family, but the size of King's Canyon NP really made the day special for me.
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