These two national parks abut one another. Sequoia was declared a national park in 1890 and is comprised of over 404 thousand acres.
Kings Canyon was established in 1940 and has over 460 thousand acres.
I stayed in Kings Canyon at Grant Grove Village in their cabins. They have a modern lodge but it was full by the time I got around to reserving a space. They also have some of the original “tent” camps on site and they still are in use.
Grant Grove, is of course, where you find the General Grant sequoia, the second largest tree on earth by volume.
It’s about a 40 minute drive to the General Sherman tree which is the largest tree in the world by volume. Both are impressive but the setting for the General Sherman is more interesting.
One of the surprises and highlights of the trip was the climb to Moro Rock. I found it by accident and was thrilled with the view.
A little less interesting was Crescent Meadow that John Muir called the gem of the sierras. Unfortunately, all the wildflowers were bloomed out but even in the fall you could see it would be spectacular in the spring and early summer.
I also got a kick by driving through a redwood. At the General Grant tree, there is a fallen redwood that is hollow on the inside and you can walk through its length to see how vast these things are.
