lvk

I have to be in Fresno in a couple of weeks. On the drive back to L.A., I was thinking of taking a detour along 180 and 198 through Sequoia Nat'l Park, joining back up with the 99 outside of Visalia. (It all depends what time on Sunday I can get out of Fresno, as it this would add an extra 3+ hours to my drive.)

We probably will not have a great deal of time to stop or hike. Is there enough to see just from the drive to make the detour worthwhile? Any favorite spots along this route? Places to stop for lunch or a picnic?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

J_Correa

I think a drive through would be great. There are some good things to see right on or just off the main road. You can see a lot from the drive, and there are some quick walks near the main road that will allow you to see a lot.

Grant Grove will be the first part of the park you will get to. There is a nice sequoia grove there with an easy path through them - I think the whole thing might be a mile. We happened upon a ranger-lead walk when we were there, which was great - we learned a lot about the history of the park. I think they have pamphlets availible with much of the same information for self-guided walks.

From there, the General's highway is a nice drive. I would stop at the Giant Forest area - there is a visitors center with a museum and gift shop, and some nice short trails in that area. There are some short walking paths right there that are good. If we want to get out of the car a bit, I would recommend taking a short detour to Crescent Meadow - this is a really pretty meadow with several really large Sequoias around it, and this early in the season, the wildflowers should be great. There is a loop trail around the meadow that is maybe a mile and a half long. We were there in July a couple years ago, and although the park was pretty busy, and things were very quiet around there - we had the trail to ourselves most of the time.

lvk

Thanks, JCorrea!

I hope we will get to do this drive. I would also like to scope out the Montecito Lodge, Wuksachi Lodge and the Lodgepole campground for potential future trips.

J_Correa

We stayed at Lodgepole for 4 nights a couple summers ago. It is a nice campground. The place is pretty big, but they have done a good job of breaking it up into smaller sections so you don't feel as much like you are in big campground.

There are a couple RV only sections, 1 or 2 tent and RV sections, and a tent only section. We were in a mixed use area, over the river from the other sections. Our site was near the river, which was terrific. I prefer the tent-only section though - it is more remote and spread out.

At the visitors center at the front of the campground, there are coin op showers, which are fairly new and pretty nice. There is also a nicely stocked grocery store - I was really surprised at the variety they had.

lvk

We drove through Sequoia NP yesterday, and it was beautiful. We saw lots of giant trees from the road. We also had lunch at the Wuksachi Lodge, which is in a very pretty setting. I definitely want to go back to spend more time there.

I just wanted to warn anyone traveling to Sequoia this summer about the road construction going on during weekdays. (fortunately for us, they take a break on weekends). Here is the update on the NPS website:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2gwu6c

J_Correa

I'm glad you were able to drive throuh Sequoia and had a good time. And thanks for the heads up about the road construction. We are considering heading up there sometime next month, so we will keep that in mind.