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A Weekend Exploring Sequoia and King's Canyon National Parks

Two national parks side by side. I've lived in California my whole life and had never been!

By: Benjamin Canevari + Save to a List

The Giant Sequoias and the views of King's Canyon. These are both a must-see if you're in California for any period of time!

We drove down Friday night. It's about a five hour drive from us. We got in at 10:30pm or so and managed to snag the last site in the campground we were at. It was COLD, so we set up the tent and climbed into bed.

We got up with the sun the next morning, made breakfast and coffee, and then we hit the road. Neither of us had been here before, so we were kind of doing the tourist thing. We hit the General's Highway and made our way south. We stopped at the tunnel tree, and from there hiked to Moro Rock. After we hiked back to the car, we slowly made our way back up to the site, stopping at whatever caught our eye.


When we got back to camp, grey clouds had rolled in and was looking like rain. So rather than go search for a spot to watch the sunset, we walked down to the General Grant Tree.


This is not the General Grant Tree, but this is my favorite photo from that little walk.

Sunday morning was cold and wet. It had poured rain on us the night before. It's never fun putting wet gear away, when we got home we unpacked everything and immediately set it up to dry out for a couple of days.

By the way, if you're in the market for a new sleeping pad, I have a recommendation for you. I woke up Sunday and found that water had seeped into the tent and I was laying in a puddle. I had no idea though until I pulled everything out of the tent. I'm super happy with my pad so far. It's the Klymit Insulated Ultralight SL.

We had a super quick trip into King's Canyon. We had a five hour drive home ahead of us. Before the drive we spent a couple of hours driving into the canyon and seeing what's what. I really cant wait to come back here when there's more water. Or maybe even snow?


We want to acknowledge and thank the past, present, and future generations of all Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples whose ancestral lands we travel, explore, and play on. Always practice Leave No Trace ethics on your adventures and follow local regulations. Please explore responsibly!

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