On the way to Sequoia and King Canyon National Parks, we were both feeling a bit down, tired and blah. So after checking into our hotel in Three Rivers we decided just to veg out and relax for the rest of the day with popcorn, chocolate, ramen, ice cream and TV watching! It was great, we really needed it! 🙂
We drove up the scenic road to hike the Muir Grove but couldn’t find the trail head (inside of a closed campground) so went to see Giant Forest.
One of our favorite hikes turned out to be wandering through the Giant Forest maze of trails in Sequoia NP, starting on the Congress trail past General Sherman (biggest tree in the world)! We really enjoyed this easy but beautiful walk through the Sequoia Forest. They aren’t dense woods, so the underbrush is open and you can see pretty far. It’s amazing to see these GIANT trees with their bright, cinnamon colored bark which really stands out, especially in the evening light!
Driving back down to the valley through the clouds we lucked out with some beautiful sunset views. The cloud cover was below us and the peaks of a few mountains poked up through the clouds and sunset – very otherworldly looking – like floating islands in the sky. And we spotted a bear grazing on the grassy hillside, two evenings in a row!
The next day we hiked the Heather Lake alpine lake trail. It leads to several alpine lakes over 9,000 ft elevation in the Sierra Nevadas. It’s a beautiful forested hike up along some sheer mountain cliffs. We decided to turn around after reaching the first alpine lake so we’d have time to see the Giant Trees Museum.
We spent a day in Kings Canyon and saw the General Grant Tree (3rd biggest tree in the world). We also hiked around to the North Grove Trail through Sequoias and mixed conifers on a nice, easy, and warm trail.
There were some pretty good viewpoints and hikes in Kings Canyon NP overlooking Kings Canyon itself. We hiked the Buena Vista trail up to a rocky outcrop over the Redwood Grove in the Valley below. It also has a great view of the Sierra high country – rocky, treeless, peaks.
On a bit of a whim, we decided to do the Big Stump trail near the entrance station on our way out. We’re so glad we did! This area was heavily logged many years ago. Then the loggers realized that the trees were too big to get out and had brittle wood. The hike turned out to be way more fun than we expected! The stumps really give you perspective into the size of these trees! We climbed on, and inside of them and they are huge!! HUGE! Pretty magnificent!
Highlights of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park
- Big Stump trail in Kings Canyon National Park
- Exploring the maze of trails in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park
- Heather Lake Trail in Sequoia National Park, surprisingly varied terrain throughout the hike with great views