The last stop in our trip. Not just the icing on the cake, but the cherry on the icing on the cake. Sequoia National Park.
The park is located in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains, and it’s home to the Giant Forest, an area with over 8,000 massive sequoias that are thousands of years old, including the largest tree on the planet – General Sherman. The scale of this place is insane, and none of the photos I took do it any justice, but I’m still going to share at least a few.
Getting There
Just like with any other popular national park, especially with bottlenecks like this one – a single serpentine road – you have to arrive early. For us, our stay at Bakersfield worked out perfectly as it was just a 1 hour 40-minute drive to the park entrance from our one-night hotel stop.
From the park entrance, it’s another hour and about 20 minutes on a winding road, which is a pretty excruciating drive, especially on your way down the mountain. General Sherman sits 6,919 feet above sea level (2,109 meters).
The Giant Forest
So, without further ado, here’s Sherman with some humans for scale (if you can make them out).
The sheer scale of this place is mind boggling. But, of course, just like you would expect in America, you can drive your car almost to Sherman, which takes away the magic a little bit. I wish you had to work for it at least a little bit.
Some people come more prepared than the others, but a regular car will do just fine.
The End
This marks the end of our journey. Our rental car served us well, and I felt sad to say goodbye since I had grown accustomed to driving a full-size sedan on the fast freeways of the state.
Experiencing a road trip in California is something everyone should do at least once. I hope to have many more adventures here, as the state has so much more to offer.
kean photos 