lawmom

Hi! How realistic is a road trip to Sequoia National Park from Los Angeles (Santa Clarita area) to Sequoia with an infant and a preschooler? This would be for a two night stay in early October (leave Friday and come back Monday). We'd probably need diaper changing and nursing breaks for the baby so I'm estimating only one to two hour stretches of driving. Are we nuts? If not...

What route would you plan on taking (including best times for travel)? I'm guessing we should start out after 9am on both days to avoid morning traffic. Should we have goals to be at a certain point before x time? From a forum search it seems like the 198 is hellish, is that all the time or just during certain times?

Any reccs on what to do while in Sequoia? We have reservations at the Wuksachi Lodge.

Thanks in advance! It's been a year since I posted my last trip report but the advice I got here was so valuable for planning it...hoping I'll be lucky this time around too!

kmbp

Many years ago we did the trip from the LA area to Sequoia/Kings Canyon with our five month old and our two year old daughters. It was early October, Columbus Day weekend. We stayed in a very spaceous cabin, enjoyed short hikes and just being on a bit of a break. Terrific trip until we woke up the second morning to several inches of snow! To this day, I don't know why I felt we had to leave that morning--we should have simply stayed where we were and waited out the weather. We survived the nerve-wracking driving on the slippery roads but I'm still anxious, all these years later, when it comes to mountain driving.

But you did not ask about weather and driving conditions! Just my $0.02--be prepared!

suz24

We had a nice trip from the Bay Area to Wawona in Yosemite when my 12 yr old was 4 months. I have Great memories of that trip. I's day go for it. Try to start out when traffic might be at its best (I know, I know) and when your wee one is most likely to sleep. Or perhaps when your pre-schooler is. This could be very early in the morning and they could still be in jammies.

Then when they wake up and the older one needs to run around a little, pull off into a town and ask a parent with little kids where a park with swings is. That's what we always did going up and down I-5 (oops, I mean "the 5" ) to Seattle.

Have a lap board or clip board so your pre-schooler can draw, along with a set of books they like to look at. Self entertainment is good.

I'd say go for it. It's good to get them used to road trips. It'll only get better (at least until they are teens!)

lawmom

Thank you both, sounds like we could have a great trip!

kmbp, I'm hoping for good weather since we are not at all comfortable with snow driving, but thanks for the warning.

suz24, good idea on the parks. I'll try to look in google maps for ideas too once I get a feel for the best route to take.

ROUTES? - Do you (or other posters) have route suggestions? Is the 99N a better option then taking the 5N straight?

SITES? - Any must sees? From a forum search the General's Tree is something that seems highly recommended, is it a far hike to visit? Should we look for a tour? FWIW, we will be driving a Honda Pilot.

Thanks again!

musicfan

We lived in the Bay Area when our daughter was born (she's now 21), and when she was about 10 months old, we took a trip to Sequoia/KC and it went marvelously. We too went in fall. As someone else said, it's good to get them used to road trips when they are little...we took her on a lot of them (DH used to travel for his job and we went along sometimes) and she was a great traveler...made it so much easier on us!

november_moon

Giant Forest is a good area to explore - there is a small visitor's center with some neat displays about the trees, a paved path around a meadow, and some other things like that. All very easy with little kids. If you have a backpack carrier for the infant, you can do some short hikes. Crescent Meadow is good - flat trail that goes around the meadow, about a mile around, which depending on your preschooler might be fine or too long, but you can always walk part way around.

Grant Grove has paved paths through the trees too, which would be fine with a stroller.

I wouldn't look for any tours except perhaps short ranger walks that they have - anything longer I think would be a risk with little kids because you know how they never like to adhere to other people's schedules