Sequoia National Park
We checked out of The Ahwahnee and headed south towards the Wawona South Entrance / Exit. We took the Route 41 scenic drive with the GuideAlong app, but did not do any hikes because we were anxious to get to our next destination, Sequoia National Park. It was time to say “good-bye’ to Yosemite NP and begin the next adventure. The drive between Yosemite and Sequoia took a few hours, and we were surprised by the number of orchards in this part of California. We saw pistachios, grapefruit, oranges, lemons, olives, grapes, and more. Rows of trees and vines for as far as the eye could see. I now fully understand why California checks your cars for fresh fruits and vegetables at each state line.
We entered Sequoia National Park around lunchtime, but didn’t want to waste time stopping to eat. We decided to eat our picnic food while driving to the Wuksachi Lodge. It was only a few miles, so how long could it take? A couple hours and about a million switchbacks later, we arrived. Don hardly ate because he was too busy making 180 degree turns every 100 feet. I was a little car sick and Don needed a drink!
Sequoia National Park is all about the trees! Of course, there are some backcountry hikes and camping, but everyone comes to see the trees.
Giant Sequoia - Sequoia National Park
Congress Trail Hike in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park
This is the General Sherman Tree. It is around 275 feet tall and around 2500 years old! Cameras just cannot capture the enormous size of these trees! A single limb broke off and lays next to the tree. The diameter of that limb is greater than any tree east of the Mississippi!
You can see the little “hobbit hole” at the bottom of this tree. This occurs naturally in sequoias which may explain why they bore openings all the way through some trees and let cars drive through them. Two trees like this recently fell down. Sequoia’s Pioneer Cabin Tree fell in 2017 and Yosemite’s Wawona Tree fell in 2007. There are still a few others outside the national parks in northern California. There are around 75 giant sequoia groves in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.
Just another example of how big these giants really are. This tree fell many years ago, but they left a cross-section to show its size.
Along with a lot of other people, we hiked the General Sherman Trail and part of the Congress Trail to see these majestic giants. The trails are paved, but with a fair amount of stairs and altitude change. However, we still saw several determined people using walkers. They just had to see the trees for themselves.
Wuksachi Lodge
The Wuksachi Lodge is beautiful and was built in 1999, so it was very modern by national park standards. However, it had that national park vibe that we love. The main lodge building included a nice restaurant, an outdoor pizza deck, a small bar, and a gift shop. The rooms were a nice walking distance from the main lodge. They were large and clean, but a little plain which is to be expected for most national park lodges.
On the walk from our room to dinner the first night, we saw this beautiful alpenglow effect. It was one of the best we’ve ever seen and we see them frequently in Steamboat.
We love the coziness of national parkitecture. We had a very good dinner in the main dinning room and another evening we ate pizza on the deck.