What It Is

Sequoia National Park is the second-oldest national park in the country.  Established in 1890 to protect giant sequoia trees—the “largest living trees by volume on Earth”—the park includes 865,964 acres­­­­­­­­­ of land in the Sierra Nevada mountain range and was the first national park created to protect a living organism.

Where It Is

Three Rivers, California

When We Went

July 2024

What We Did

We visited the General Sherman Tree (the world’s largest tree by volume), walked around in the Giant Forest, wasted a ton of time waiting for a shuttle to take us back to our car, walked the Big Trees Trail, watched the kids climb on a fallen giant, and marveled at the size of these beautiful, ginormous trees.

How Much We Spent

We planned to visit five national parks on that trip, so we bought the $80 America the Beautiful National Parks pass.  If you don’t have an annual pass, expect to pay a $35 entrance fee.

How Much Time We Spent There

Technically, we were inside the park for approximately six hours.  However, we spent only about two-and-a-half hours doing park things.  Here’s why:​

• The guts of the National Park are high up in the mountains.  Even after we entered the park, it still took us nearly an hour of driving to get to the first attraction.  Likewise on the way out.
  

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• Generals Highway, the main road that runs through Sequoia National Park, is windy and steep with tight switchbacks.  You will not be driving very fast, especially if there’s traffic.  Vehicles longer than 22 feet are not recommended on parts of the road.
  

• We spent almost an hour and a half waiting for and then utilizing a shuttle bus to take us ONE STOP.  Parking at the lot closest to the General Sherman Tree was full, so we had to drive farther, to the second lot.  The 15-minute, half-mile walk to the tree was a STEEP descent, and I had no desire to walk back up it in 100+ degree heat.  We wasted a good chunk of time (between 4:45 and 6:10, no less) waiting for the shuttle ride back to our car. 
  

What We Liked

We loved the trees.  My father was, until his retirement, a state forester.  He loves trees more than anyone I’ve known, but even he's never seen anything quite like the sequoias of this national park.

Believed to be thousands of years old, giant sequoias are among the largest trees—by volume—on the earth.  Most sequoias in this region grow to heights between 250 and 300 feet, but it’s their thick trunks that give them their claim to fame.  Many sequoias have a circumference, at ground level, of up to 94 feet.

While these numbers sound impressive, you can’t really appreciate what that means until you’re standing under one.  Looking up, you never really see the top, just a seemingly endless line of beautiful bark.  And the greenery on the trees?  I had to look that up.  Sequoias are coniferous evergreens.  We were looking up at needles, not leaves, but you’d never know that in person: the branches are too high up off the ground.

The most famous tree in the park, the General Sherman tree, stands just over 272 feet tall (that’s almost the height of an 11-story building) and has a ground-level circumference of almost 102 feet (that’s equivalent to a medium-sized circus tent).  Although it was fun to say we saw it, General Sherman didn’t impress us as much as the other sequoias.  

Unlike with General Sherman, which is highly protected by a fence to keep visitors at bay, we were able to stand right next to other sequoias in the Giant Forest and along the Big Trees Trail.  Only then can you truly appreciate how massive these trees are.  

I don’t usually make a particularly big deal about tree bark.  I do love the bark of white birch trees, and my husband and I were totally wowed by the bark of the rainbow eucalyptus trees along the road to Hana in Hawaii (10th anniversary trip).  However, the warm, reddish-orange color and the deep ridges of the sequoias’ bark really stood out to us, especially against the bark of the other, “plainer” trees that surround them.

What We Didn't Like

When we arrived at 2:00 in the afternoon (we were coming from Monterey, California, four hours away), the crowds were in full force.  We weren’t surprised by that, but we were surprised by the inability of the crowd to spread out.  Between the narrow roads, the limited number of pull-offs, and the full parking lots, there was very little breathing room.  Everyone was jostling for the same space.  There were Park Rangers monitoring traffic flowing in and out of the parking lots, but those poor folks seemed to spend as much of their time yelling at drivers who stopped in front of the parking lot entrances to either drop-off or pick-up passengers as they did directing traffic.  It was a little stressful and chaotic getting around.

Also, we didn’t have cell service the entire time.  It was a minor inconvenience for us, spoiled as we are with technology, but if you plan to do any long-distance or remote hiking, you’ll want to make sure you have another form of communication with you or at least let someone know where you are.  We bought a Garmin InReach Mini many years ago when we knew we’d be without cell service driving through parts of the midwest, but we recommend any quality satellite communicator if you expect you’ll be away from the crowds.


Was it worth it? 

Yes.  We were in awe of what we saw, and we barely scratched the surface of what Sequoia offers.  In addition to seeing some of the largest trees in the world and hiking scenic trails high in the mountains, you can also climb to the top of Moro Rock for panoramic views of the High Sierra (including the Great Western Divide), explore an underground cave, fish, go rock climbing, or camp.  


For more information, visit https://www.nps.gov/seki/index.htm.

Did You Know?  Every bear in Sequoia National Park is a black bear, even if it’s brown, cinnamon-colored, or blonde.  According to the National Park Service, California grizzly bears, also known as brown bears, were exterminated from the state in the 1920s. 

Was It Worth It?
Sequoia National Park

​Posted February 1, 2026, by Janet Wolfe