Get update alerts
Locations
- .All Trips
- Art
- Car Culture
- Central America/Caribbean
- Food
- Food Tour
- Pic of the Week
- Sl;ovenia
.All Trips / California / North America / Southwestern USA
Remarkable Sequoia National Park

Going back through my travel records, I was surprised to find that it’s been almost 20 years since I last visited Sequoia National Park — my, how time flies. I’m glad I spent a lot of time exploring this park during the 1980s and 1990s because it’s a special place.
Sequoia NP was about a 4 hour drive from our home in Southern California (under ideal traffic conditions– often more like 5 or 6 hours) and was one of the easiest to reach natural destinations near us, so we visited it almost every year. The park spans over 400,000 acres so it’s impossible to see it all. It’s part of the UNESCO Sequoia-Kings Canyon Biosphere Reserve (1976).
What’s so special about the park? Lots, to be sure …
.All Trips / California / North America / Southwestern USA
Yosemite National Park: Hiking in the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias

The state of California has some pretty remarkable scenery. Where else can you find the world’s …
Oldest trees (bristle-cone pines)
Tallest trees (redwoods)
Largest/most massive trees (sequoias)…
…but in California? I know it’s a rhetorical question, but there’s no area I know of that offers such variety.
As one might imagine, to walk in a grove of giant sequoias is a most memorable experience. If you’ve never felt small and insignificant in life, you likely will when you stand beside an ancient sequoia tree. The largest density of sequoia trees is in California’s Sequoia National Park, south of Yosemite, including the tree known as “General Sherman”, the world’s largest living thing. Yosemite National Park has two groves of …