Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park

September 15-16, 1994

After our tour of Mariposa Grove and our hike out to Wawona Overlook, we drove down to Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park. The distance is about 150 miles by the recommended route through Fresno, and probably further by the route we took. We drove in on Hwy 180 from Fresno and found a room for the night at the Snowline Lodge in Dunlop, marked by the "A" on the map below. We then drove on into the park in the late afternoon and got the nice sunset view when we were driving back down from the entrance to Kings Canyon National Park.

We were up early on September 16 and went back to the Kings Canyon entrance. The view at left is Brenda by the roadside near the entrance to the park.

Above right is a view of the mountains from near Grant's Grove in Kings Canyon National Park. The map below shows the area that we explored on these two days, reaching from our night's lodging marked "A" to the very end of the road down into Kings Canyon on the right.

It was a beautiful morning, so Brenda enjoyed just lying on a flat rock for a while to enjoy the tranquil mountain scenery.

But if you stay still for too long, the squirrels get curious.

Oh, well! It was nice while it lasted.

We moved from the Kings Canyon overlook toward Sequoia National Park and enjoyed the view of the misty mountains on the road between them.

Brenda is indeed very small compared to these great golden-hued sequoias near the entrance to Sequoia National Park.

Brenda and Rod feeling humble in the great presence of the General Sherman tree. We were awed by the great tree, but being from Atlanta were certainly not pleased with it being named after our Civil War nemesis.

The General Sherman is said to be the world's largest tree. This is largest by volume. Based on 1975 measurements, its volume was computed to be 52,500 cubic feet. Its height is 275 feet, diameter at base 36.5 feet, and the height of the first branch above the ground is 130 feet. The diameter of its largest limb is 6.8 feet. If you climbed it to 180 feet above ground, its diameter is still 14 feet!

This tree is estimated to be between 2300 and 2700 years old.

Above, Brenda is in the midst of a grove of six giant sequoia trees near Giant Forest Lodge. At right, Rod is on a ledge along the trail to Moro Rock.

Above, Brenda is at the top of Moro Rock, looking at the switchbacks in the road below her. We found that this was the road down into Kings Canyon, and we traveled it later.

These are the stairs up Moro Rock, with Brenda nearly at the top of them.

The fallen sequoia is called "Auto Log", so we compliantly drove our rental car up on it.

This was our final stop before heading down into Kings Canyon where we had decided to spend the night.