The Giant Trees at Sequoia National Park

Located in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the Western region of the United States, Sequoia National Park is famous for the giant sequoia trees, including the largest tree on earth – General Sherman.

The majority of the park is not accessible via motor vehicles because of its sheer wilderness. However, you can still enjoy the beauty of this rare redwood forest area and cover the trails it offers.

There are multiple entry points to the park. But the one we took was the most difficult drive uphill – Highway 198 from the southwest through three rivers. It had hairpin bends which were covered with fog throughout. The winding roads with steep incline were difficult to drive as there was traffic from both the sides. Many were making frequent stops to beat the motion sickness. In spite of all this, this was my second most favorite driving experience because of the views; first being Mount Washington Auto Road.

There were three attractions we wanted to cover.

First was Moro Rock. We went there twice, climbed once – nearly 200 out of 400 steps, but couldn’t see the view of the valley as it was super foggy. The visibility in the parking lot itself was less than 1 feet! See for yourself…

However, driving through the woods to reach there, with cold breeze caressing our face made it memorable.

After our first failed attempt to climb Moro Rock, we headed to the Sherman Tree. The Sherman Tree is shown in the 1st pic below. It is the largest tree on earth by volume of its trunk. It can be reached through a 0.8-mile round trip paved path from the parking lot and also gives a close-up view of the grove of giant sequoia trees. The ash in the next pic is necessary for the survival of these trees and most of them can be seen having some form of it.

Our next stop was a mile-long walk – Grant Grove. It’s a loop around tall sequoia trees and is an easy one with information written alongside the trees. I recommend it to everyone as this gives a peek into the history and geography of the area. There are benches and picnic areas in the park, too.

After the leisure walk, we headed back to the Moro Rock to try our luck one more time. The Fog was thinning and we were very hopeful of making it to the top this time. We starting driving down the road but as we were nearing the parking, a thick blanket of fog appeared suddenly. It was quite amazing to see fog appearing and disappearing with each turn on the road. Unluckily, we had to leave from there again!

Our last stop was Tunnel Log. It’s a car tunnel carved out of the trunk of a sequoia that fell over the road in 1937. Drive and click a picture…it’s a fun thing to do. Tunnel Log is on the Crescent Meadow Loop.