Yosemite and Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks

Spring 2012

 With so many National Parks still to visit, we really don't have time for repeats, but a new car calls for another road trip and there's nowhere better for a road trip than Yosemite Valley.

  • Yosemite NP 
I regret not having been able to visit Yosemite before 1970 when it really was a different place--bear feedings, firefalls, and drive-through trees just for starters--but, still, I have lost track of how many times we have visited since we first came to California. I do know that we have been there in every season and just about every month of the year. 


We've been to the Bracebridge Dinner at the Ahwahnee Hotel on Christmas Day, skated at Camp Curry, and checked out the downhill ski conditions at Badger Pass. We've seen massive waterfalls during spring runoffs and spectacular fall color on the valley floor. We've seen the sun rise over Half Dome and then hiked through the mists to the top of Vernal Fall and on to the top of Nevada Falls to get out of the summer heat.



We've worked our way through every form of sleeping accommodation from a tent in the old Lower River campground to Tent Cabins at Curry Village to a real cabin at the Yosemite Lodge to a room at the Lodge and even to a room on the third floor of the Ahwahnee Hotel itself.

 Based on all this experience, I can say with absolute certainty, that the best time to visit Yosemite is simply as soon as possible. No matter how bad the weather is or how crowded the park gets, once you're there, you can stop at any time and look up in any direction from the valley floor and fully realize that you are in the single most beautiful place in all the world.

  • Sequoia NP
Sequoia was the second National Park after Yellowstone and had the primary mission of protecting the sequoia trees of the Giant Forest.

Unlike their cousins the coastal redwoods, which seem to grow skyward forever, the giant sequoias quickly grow to their full height of just under 300 feet and then start adding thickness. The General Sherman tree in the Giant Forest has been doing it best, and until the recent discovery of that bizarre fungus in Oregon, it was considered the largest living thing on earth. By one count, there are 34 other groves of sequoia in the park, but the Giant Forest is home to five of the ten most massive trees in the world as well as dozens more.
  • Kings Canyon NP
Less than a month after the establishment of Sequoia National Park, legislation was passed establishing Yosemite National Park. Included as part of this legislation was the establishment of General Grant National Park which was nothing more than the Grant Grove of giant sequoias. Then in 1940, Kings Canyon National Park was established to protect the deepest gorge in the United States where the forks of the Kings River converge and General Grant National Park was made a part of this new park despite being nowhere near the gorge. And today, Sequoia and Kings Canyon are administered as if they were one park. The whole story of the establishment of these three (or four) national parks in the central Sierras is really quite murky and confusing, but they are certainly fine jewels of the park system.

Most people visit Kings Canyon National Park to see America's Christmas Tree, the General Grant giant sequoia, and most never make the long trek to visit Kings Canyon. It's very much like taking Tioga Road to Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite: those who make the additional effort are well rewarded.

  • Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad
OK, the truth comes out. The real reason for this trip was to visit the Ansel Adams Gallery to pick up a special print and most especially to ride the Sugar Pine Railroad. As the name suggests, the railroad was in the lumber business, specializing in harvesting the sugar pine tree.

The Great Depression hurt the lumber business badly and in 1931, after a very successful 56 year run, the owners shut down operations. It's only been in recent years that it was revived with steam train rides for nostalgic tourists. In many ways it reminded me of the Sugar Cane train on Maui.

The Yosemite Mountain operation is just outside the south entrance to Yosemite National Park and, after our morning train excursion, we headed for the Wawona Hotel for a great lunch on the hotel verandah.

For Additional Photos, Go To:
Also, I hope to soon add a link to more pictures as I scan our best 
Yosemite slides from over 30 years of visiting this National Park.