This has been the summer of road trips.  We take every spare moment and pack in some camping or hiking, no excuses or exceptions.  Driving into the Sierra Nevada Mountains in central California is always a treat.  Either by entering from the eastern desert or the western grasslands, the drive up always brings a sense of excitement into my heart.  Carrie had spent time there last year, but this would be my first time camping and hiking in Sequoia National Park – land of the world’s biggest trees.

Sequoia National Park – The World’s Biggest Trees

Entering Sequoia National Park we finally escaped the lingering smoke of the Central Valley.  It had been a hard summer for California wildfires, and we were thankful that the smoke was not in the park at the moment.  The trees got bigger and bigger and soon we were driving through the Giant Forest, feeling quite small in our Prius, but comforted by the calming energy of the amazing nature.

We camped at Lodgepole Campground, at a beautiful spot near a stream at the end of the road.  There was a little waterfall which created a constant calming flow and the sites were well spread out with friendly people occupying them.  The first night we went to bed early, ready to do some morning exploring.

Day two was all about trees.  Giant sequoia trees, that is.   We drove all the way in to bordering Kings Canyon National Park and entered the General Grant Grove.  Grant Tree was in the grove, the second largest tree in the world by volume.  There was also a cool tree you could slide down, and a few trees with big holes at the base where you could enter and hang out inside of the tree.  The sequoia trees don’t rot like normal trees, so when they die they remain standing for many hundreds of years.  We walked through some tunnel-like fallen trees that were used as shelter by the first people to stumble upon the forest.

Driving back into Sequoia towards camp, we made one more stop at the Sherman Tree, the largest tree in the world (by volume) and one of the most popular attractions in Sequoia National Park.  This tree was MASSIVE and the energy put off by the world’s biggest trees was hard to ignore.  We got a buzz just by walking around, it was a really special experience.

The world’s biggest tree, the Sherman Tree!

Our last day was a hiking day.  We wanted to see some high altitude lakes in Sequoia National Park and maybe do a little swimming, so we asked the rangers for the best way to do that.  We don’t like to disclose locations of our most amazing and less-crowded excursions, so if you’d like to do this hike yourself you can probably figure out which one it was.

Our hike ended up being nearly 13 miles, as we rightly chose to venture to the end of the trail and what was suppose to be the most beautiful lake.  It was well worth it, our favorite trail of the 2018 summer and one of the most fun in our lives.  The finish was this incredible lake.  We walked around to where no one could see us and took our clothes off for a nice swim in the clear and not-too-freezing lake, then got some mountain sun laying out on a rock.  It was the perfect way to relax before heading down the trail.

THIS VIEW!

The water wasn’t as cold as you’d expect!

Never ending beauty!

A swim in the beautiful water!

Sequoia National Park ended up being more beautiful than we could have hoped.  We can’t wait to check out more trails in the future and the world’s biggest trees do not disappoint.  Make sure to check out our quick video of us playing with sequoia trees!

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