Day 13 - Sequoia National Park

Today was an absolutely amazing day, I know shocking! Erin and I both agree that Sequoia National Park was the best part of the trip! We headed out from Oakhurst on a beautiful drive along the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. We had planned on going to King’s Canyon first via CA 180; however, we were unable to because of a snow storm from the night before which required us to have chains on all four tires! So we continued south to enter Sequoia National Park from the south via CA 198. We entered the park at around 500 feet of elevation. From there we drove UP to 6,700 feet before stopping! We started out in rain which turned to snow after 5,000 feet or so! It was a very windy road which had intense construction for 3 miles. They only let cars through the construction every TWO HOURS, but thankfully we only had to wait about 30 minutes each time! The drive was amazing through the snow filled trees and forest! Once again we thought we might have been done with the snow, but boy were we wrong! They had 6-8 inches of snow during the night and it was still snowing when we got there. First we stopped by the visitor center to figure out what we could get to without chains and what roads were closed etc. We needed chains to get to Crystal Cave and Moro Rock, so we weren’t able to go to those. However, we were able to go to Tokopah Falls trail and hike through the 6-8” of snow! The hike was right along a river and was absolutely beautiful! We enjoyed making a snowman and snow angels along the trail as well. Unfortunately, we did not walk the full 1.7 miles to the falls because we just weren’t sure if and when the road conditions would start to deteriorate. From there we drove to General Sherman’s tree, which is the largest tree by volume in the world! There were plenty of other huge Sequoias along the same trail that we got to enjoy. The trees and forest were just stunning covered in snow! While we didn’t get to do everything inside the park we had planned on, we definitely wouldn’t trade the snow out to see the other sights! From the park we drove about 2 hours to Bakersfield before we retired for the night. Tomorrow, essentially our last day, we head to Las Vegas to fly out the following morning. We are going to Mystere by Cirque de Soleil tomorrow night in Vegas.

Miles Traveled: 265

 Our larger snowman!

We had originally planned to camp here!  Instead the campsite was FILLED with snow!