California Itinerary – Including Joshua Tree, Yosemite, Kings Canyon & Sequoia National Parks
An itinerary of California starting in LA and exploring several National Parks including Joshua Tree, Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia.
Yosemite Valley in Pictures
As many of you know, my dear hubby, DH, loves photography and Yosemite NP offered multitudes of places to capture.
Bridal Veil Falls
DH will tell you that the timing wasn’t right to get good photos of Bridal Veil Falls. Maybe so, but I loved the falls anyway. We arrived around 7 a.m. in order to beat the crowds. The flat path was only 1/4-mile to the falls. (more…)
Sequoia NP
Sequoia National Park – California
Sequoia National Park is the country’s second national park. Established a week before Yosemite NP in 1890, the park provides protection for its many sequoia trees from the logging industry. These trees only grow in elevations between 5,000 – 7,000 feet and because they are very hardy, can live up to 3,000 years.
Coming from Grant Grove in Kings Canyon NP, we drove along the General’s Highway past the Wuksachi Lodge to the Lodgepole Visitor Center. I can’t imagine what it was like before this road was built in 1926. Because the road is curvy and crowded in the summer months, the park offers a free shuttle service from the visitor center to the Sherman Tree and Giant Forest Museum. (more…)
Kings Canyon NP
Kings Canyon National Park – California
Kings Canyon and Sequoia are separate national parks, but share park administration. Basically, once you enter one park, you travel seamlessly in both parks without having to go through another entrance station. Although contiguous to each other, they are quite different. Because we entered at the Big Stump entrance, we explored Kings Canyon NP first.
At the Kings Canyon visitor center, we watched a film featuring both parks and learned surprising bits of both parks history. Established in 1890, Sequoia NP is the second national park in the US. Shortly after, the nearby Grant Grove area became General Grant National Park. In 1940, FDR established Kings Canyon NP and transferred General Grant NP (which was only 150 acres) to the much larger Kings Canyon NP. For this reason, Kings Canyon features two separate sections – Grant Grove and Cedar Grove. (more…)