We spent four nights at Riverbend RV Park in Sanger, CA while we visited Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. I could have probably found a closer campground if I’d known we’d have a shorter RV, but this was a nice, quiet spot about an hour away from the parks. After getting settled in, we drove about 20 minutes into Fresno to get groceries and refuel.
We went from one extreme to the other with the weather, though, after the heat in Death Valley, Sequoia National Park called for snow and freezing temperatures the first couple of days we were there. So, we decided to switch our plans up a bit and spend Thursday resting at the RV, then Friday at Kings Canyon, since it was a bit warmer than Sequoia and lower change of precipitation. Unfortunately, that meant doing Sequoia on a Saturday, when crowds would be busiest; but at least it would be sunny instead of snowy, with highs in the 60s. We’d deal with crowds instead of hiking in snow and ice! Randy took so many amazing photos at these parks that I decided to split them into two posts, even though we did them from the same campsite location.
The drive to and from the parks was really pretty, and extremely curvy and hilly, but as we drove higher in elevation to get to the entrance station on Friday morning, it got foggier/cloudier. I was worried it would not be worth driving on the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway, but turns out it’s much lower than the Big Stump Entrance Station and had amazing views!!
Following our Guide Along’s advice, we started with the easy 1.6 mile Big Stump hike, to see our first huge Sequoia trees, along with a bunch of huge stumps from when the area was logged. It was hard to imagine the ginormous trees being sawed down by hand. The stump that Randy & I are standing on is called Mark Twain. Its tree was 300 ft tall and 91 ft around at the base and it took two lumbermen 13 days of chopping and sawing to bring it down in 1891! The holes inside were big enough for a couple of kids to crawl down into completely (you can see how big the kids are in one pic, then the tops of their heads in the next.) As we hiked, the fog rolled in. I’m glad it was clear most of the way, but the fog was cool too.
Then we did the short, paved trail to see the General Grant tree, the third largest in the world by volume. And it’s the world’s widest Sequoia, at 40 feet in diameter (It would take about 20 people to hold hands around it, fyi.) The sequoias really are quite impressive to stand beside. It’s also impressive how well sequoias can withstand fires. Many of them had burned sections at their base, but are still living and growing.
After getting our fill of Sequoias, we drove along the 35 mile Kings Canyon Scenic Byway, stopping at overlooks and trails along the way. We saw Grizzly Falls, which was right off the road and did the mile out-and-back hike to Roaring River Falls, which we really enjoyed. We also did the 1.5 mile out-and-back trail in Cedar Grove to Zumwalt Meadows, which was nice, but I was tired and probably didn’t enjoy it as much as I might have earlier in the day.
Even with the clouds covering some of the peaks, it was still a awe-inspiring to look out across God’s creation from a bunch of different overlooks along the Scenic Byway. The word “Scenic” doesn’t actually capture how amazing the views were. I’m not sure Spectacular, Breath-taking, Amazing, Gorgeous or Awesome do either, but you get the idea!
There was a family from Florida stopping at many of the same spots, so I got to know the mom, Jenny, a bit. Their college age daughter and high school son were adventurous and would go off to explore while their parents waited. After a few stops, I walked up and said, “Hey, it’s my old friend Jenny!” and she replied “My friend Sherri is here!” and we gave each other a hug, haha. Kind of fun. I thought too late that we should have taken a picture together. Oh well. They were heading to Yosemite next, too, so maybe we’ll meet again! (Highly unlikely, buy maybe.)
We were planning to drive up to Panoramic Point around 7:30pm on our way out of the park, but after driving just a bit up in elevation, we started getting back into the fog, so we figured a panoramic view of fog wasn’t worth the drive up the skinny, windy 2 mile road, and turned around to start the 1.5 hour drive back to the RV. As we rounded a curve on our way home, we were greeted with a gorgeous sunset. Fortunately, there was a nearby overlook, so we stopped to soak it in before continuing home. It was a LONG, full, beautiful, tiring day (and we get to do it again in Sequoia tomorrow)!
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