Sequoia, California

Now if you have been reading the rest of our blogs you know that we have been spending a lot of time in National Parks. We ended up touring our last day of Yosemite National Park with another couple. All they could talk about was how Sequoia another National Park in California was more beautiful than Yosemite. We really couldn’t believe it, but we decided to go visit. We figured that if we were in California it wouldn’t hurt to stay a few extra days. We didn’t want to fly all the way across the country for a three day tour of Yosemite and then leave, so we made reservations to stay at a hotel near Sequoia.

We still have our Ford Escape that we got right in the airport terminal, and it’s still running just fine. It has worked exceptionally well, with all the cab space it’s comfortable and with all the trunk space its easy to get around with all of our stuff. Our hotel was nice, and we decided that the first day we were there we would visit the Park Center and learn a little about what we were getting ourselves into. The park is over 400,000 acres, so there was no chance we would get to see it all. The most popular attraction to the area is Mount Whitney, the highest point in the United States. Suffice to say you could see this mountain anywhere in the park.

We decided to get a guided tour this time, because we didn’t have the time to research the area as we usually did. The guide met us in the morning at the Park Center and we simply just started walking. The trees here are simply beautiful, they are named “Sequoiadendron” and yes I had to Google the name. They are really large trees that encompass all the hillsides and cast shade on everything.

Mount Whitney was the primary thing we talked about with the guide. Apparently he had climbed it several times, and generally that’s what people came here to do. He kept telling us that the mountain was 14,505 feet above sea level, now that doesn’t mean that its 14,505 feet high, we never actually got the chance to find out how tall it was, but yes, it was massive. The best part about the whole area though were the waterfalls, they were just gorgeous.

I think overall we like Sequoia more than Yosemite, that couple we toured with were defiantly right. I don’t think we will ever plan a trip to these parks again, but if we are ever in the area I couldn’t resist taking a day to walk in these forests again, we really love these National Parks.