Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, CA

Sequoia and Kings Canyon were both amazing. Our first stop was the Sequoia area. Our good friend B, with whom we had caved and climbed in the DC area before he also moved away, came out from the LA area. We all spent a day rock climbing and checking out some of the park.

Here are pictures from rock climbing. We found a wall on the hillside above the Hospital Rocks parking lot and found a route that we could trad climb. Here is a shot of part of the wall from the parking lot. Our route was near the right side.

Here we are scoping out the back side of the wall to check for anchors at the top.

Then we finally got to climbing. K led, B seconded, and then I came up last to clean the route.

From the top we enjoyed the great views and then all rappelled off.

Afterwards, we stopped at a few overlooks to admire the grand views of Moro Rock and Castle Rocks, walked out to the General Sherman Tree (wow! This tree is the largest living thing on the planet by volume), and the following day even hiked up to the top of Moro Rock for some amazing views. Here are the pictures:

Once B headed back home, K and I continued our exploration. We visited the General Grant Tree (also wow! This tree is 267 feet tall and is also called the “Nation’s Christmas Tree”) and drove up to Panoramic Point where you could barely see into the start of Kings Canyon and see the high Sierras in the distance.

Finally, we drove through the Kings Canyon. We really had no expectations for this, and we were blown away by it. Kings Canyon is impressive! It is one of the deepest canyons in the U.S. (8,200 feet (2,500 meters)).

This wall was so neat we drove by it three times to really get a good look and take a picture.