Yosemite, Sequioa and Kings Canyon
After our Death Valley foray we headed into the Sierra Nevada. Not many roads lead across this rugged land, so we rounded them on the south side. We made a stop in Kernville Brewery to break up the drive, neither the food or the beer was good, so I wouldn’t recommend it. North of Kernville there are dozens of small campgrounds along the river, some were paid, some free, no one was really there so late in the season so we found a really nice place down by the river. It was nice to hear running water after so many weeks in the desert.
We followed the road north towards Sequoia which turned out to be pretty rough, it was very narrow and curvy, the roadway was old and breaking up in places and cliffs and trees crowded us most of the way. But we made it, and later realised that this would become the new norm when travelling California mountain roads. We arrived in Sequoia late in the afternoon and stopped at the first campground Potwisha, a decent campground, I took the last 2 hours of daylight to hike up the canyon to a waterfall, the water was so clear and the pools such an amazing color of blue, it was a good de-stressor after the crazy drive.
Sequoia itself is a smaller park, with one road going through with pullouts for the majority of groves. We were able to hit up all the major points including wandering the main trails at each, seeing the groves of sequoia trees and a few of the largest trees in the world, both in circumference and total mass. Given the narrow range that these trees grow, we are lucky they didn’t all get logged off, but luckily they wood proved to be quite brittle so about half of the old growth remains, some of the oldest trees are nearly 4000 years old. It made em wonder how many wonders like this are simply no longer around, as they proved valuable to someone at some point in history. So a trip here is definitely a requirement for anyone exploring the Sierra Nevada.
We stayed 2 nights next in Kings Canyon, just north of Sequoia, Kings Canyon also has quite some groves of Sequoia trees as well. I took a nice hike directly from the campground that took me through many groves and just past the Roosevelt tree. We had the campground nearly to ourselves, as it was close to freezing each night. Kings Canyon is just a long deadend road, more of those California mountain roads. The Canyon was interesting, but not much to do via car, looking at the map, I think the major draw is the backcountry in the Sierra Nevada, especially on the eastern slopes. Even the Pacific Crest Trail cuts through here, and connects through national forest with Yosemite backcountry to the north. I definitely want to come back someday and do some multi day trips into the backcountry.
Next up was Yosemite, here I wish we had arranged some reservations at the campgrounds. We visited Yosemite across 4 days and stayed in BLM land just outside the south and north entrances. While the free campsites we found were excellent, the 45 – 60 minute drive to get to the valley, via those California mountain roads was rough on each end of the day. The main attraction in Yosemite is the valley, and we arrived on a Saturday, and it was a bit of a zoo. Yosemite had really bad maps and signage, it was hard to figure out RV parking and the shuttle system, but once we figured it out it was very handy. We used it each day to get around to the sites. We hiked to Vernal and Nevada falls, this was a super busy trail, I can’t imagine what it is like in summer, especially as half dome was closed for the season, too bad as I will need to come back to do that hike. I did hike up to Yosemite falls, which is probably a bit more busy in spring when water is actually running over the falls, but was nearly empty when I went up. I also went another 3 miles to Eagle peak, which gave the best views of the whole trip. Yosemite valley is truly amazing and you definitely get up to fully appreciate it. This hike was quite strenuous, 4k vertical over 6 miles was tough, especially with 3K in the first 3 miles, but so so worth it when I reached the top, I couldn’t pull myself away from the view, I kept stopping to admire it for a bit longer.
We also took an opportunity to drive the north road over Tioga pass. This was an entirely different landscape as it stayed up above the valley in the High Sierra. Alpine lakes and glacially carved domes abound here and are worth a couple days of exploring. On the east side of Tioga pass is a quick decent back into desert and the small town of Lee Vining. There was a nice diner there where we got burgers and milkshakes, delicious. However gas here was the highest we saw $5.49 a gallon, nearly a dollar more expensive than in the park itself, which is already near a dollar more than California’s high gas prices. So definitely fill up before you come this way. We were lucky that a fill up wasn’t necessary, we did see another RV who wasn’t as lucky as us, it must have cost a fortune.
So Yosemite definitely lives up to the hype, though not quite enough to knock Glacier off the top spot, it is a close second. Sequoia is nearby and worth a day or two if you have some extra time. But skip Kings Canyon unless you have a full 2 weeks or have a chance to do some backcountry.
