Yosemite National Park
Start by taking the whole family on a joyful nature walk through the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias. Near the southern entrance to Yosemite National Park, this monumental grove shelters over 500 of the world’s largest living trees, which tower over human day trippers. Although giant sequoia are not the oldest trees on Earth (those are ancient bristlecone pines, found in the eastern Sierra Nevada), nor are they the planet’s tallest trees (those are the coast redwoods, as seen in Northern California), they are still mighty impressive due to their record-breaking size.
If you come early in the day or visit the park during the off-season, you may be able to secure a spot in the Mariposa Grove parking lot. Otherwise, it’s easier to hop on the free seasonal shuttle bus, which picks up visitors near the park’s south entrance station and in Wawona at the general store. Bus riders are guaranteed entrance to Mariposa Grove, even when the parking lot is full. Note the Mariposa Grove access road is usually only open to private vehicles from April through November, weather-permitting. In winter, snowshoers and cross-country skiers are welcome to use it.
From the parking lot, paved trails and gentle forest footpaths lead deep into Mariposa Grove. Alternatively, you can take a one-hour guided tram tour (for an additional fee). On foot, it’s a two-mile trek uphill to the Mariposa Grove Museum, inside a historic log cabin. En route, you’ll pass several landmark specimens of giant sequoia, including the Fallen Monarch, the California Tunnel Tree (which you can walk through), and the Grizzly Giant, which scientists estimate to be more than 1800 years old. If you keep hiking beyond the museum for another mile uphill, you’ll reach Wawona Point, offering panoramic views.
Yosemite’s other groves of giant sequoias include the Merced Grove and Tuolumne Grove, both accessible from hiking trailheads near the park’s northwestern entrance station near Big Oak Flat. In these smaller groves of giant sequoias, you can often escape the biggest summer crowds.
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks
It’s definitely worth your time detour south of Yosemite to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, which shelter even larger groves of giant sequoia trees. At the entrance to Kings Canyon National Park, Grant Grove is named for the General Grant Tree, a national shrine and also the nation’s official Christmas Tree. A short, paved interpretive trail leads around Grant Grove, stopping at the Fallen Monarch, a hollowed-out remnant of a giant sequoia partly destroyed by fire, and which historically served as a hotel, saloon, and horse stables for the U.S. Cavalry.
Leading south from Grant Grove, the winding Generals Highway is an incredibly scenic drive that connects Kings Canyon with its sister, Sequoia National Park, by passing through the national forest land of the Giant Sequoia National Monument. Inside the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park, the General Sherman Tree is the largest known tree anywhere in the world. It measures over 100 feet in circumference at its base and is estimated to be over 2,000 years old. Stop by the family-friendly Giant Forest Museum to learn more about the life cycle of giant sequoias, then drive out to Crescent Meadow by the famous Tunnel Tree, a drive-through tree.
This all sounds wonderful and we are planing an end of April ,3 night stay near Yosemite village in a rental home. From there we are driving to Death Valley. Kings Canyon is a must see. Can you suggest a route into Death Valley from the west when leaving the park? We want to be in Furnace.
Can you legally buy and plant giant sequoias? Like 1000 of them?
Yosemite is the one special place in all of this country. A land beyond time as long as we who visit same protect it from harm.
“the one special place in all of this country” ??? You obviously have not traveled much. I recommend a visit to Rocky Mountain National Park, Canyonlands National Oark and Notch Peak in south-west Utah. Yosemite is beautiful but it is not “the one special place” .
Planning a trip for this fall, cannot wait to go. Such beautiful grandeur!
the Dream of Dreams we will be on our walk in Yosemite in June…we have walked and backpacked for miles and hours at a time to prepare.yet reading we do not feel prepared…we will climb Yellowstone Falls outlook and the trip down from Glacial Point. then I will return here to tell the tell not of dreams but of reality…so come back in July and see if the park was too powerful for our perpetration seeking pictures to go in our second book of Christian Poetry….the first (Aginst Starlight), due out in the Fall, contains many pictures taken in the Smoky Mountains. we have little doubt that Yosemity will provide the powerful pictures needed to speak to God’s Sprit in our second book, due out in a year or two.