The home of General Sherman

The open road on the way to Sequoia National Park
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Sequoia National Park, as we found out, is a LONG way from Grand Canyon. After a full days driving we wound up in the closest town / city to the park. Visalia is about 50 miles outside, and serves as a base for travellers heading to Sequoia, Yosemite and Kings Canyon. We stayed in a Days hotel, just off the freeway which was the dump that you might expect - sharing the bedroom and bathroom with various types of bug, spider and six legged things. The next morning we made the short drive to Seqouia, and found ourselves driving in the shadows of 200ft tall trees either side of us. It really was stunning. most of the trees are well into a four figure age at this stage. Our main reason for coming was to see the famed General Sherman tree, the largest living thing on the planet. Although he's not the tallest, the general has the largest mass of anything alive today (far too risky to make a joke here). Ciara fulfilled her day long dream of hugging General Sherman, even though its not allowed. The tree is so big that if you run around the back of it, and hop over the fence if you can get in close without anyone seeing. The rugged scenery of Sequoia makes for a fantastic winding drive thorough forest, valley floor and steep clifftops. Around each corner there was something new to see, sometimes this included a car on the wrong side of the road.

Our car!
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As we drove out of the park, and through Kings Canyon, we decided to head straight up to Yosemite for that night. We've become quite accustomed to 5 hour plus drives at this stage, so it wasn't a big ask to get there for that evening. Next update will be from Americas' first National Park, Yosemite.

Around each corner there was something new to see, sometimes this included a car on the wrong side of the road