Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, CA

ByChristine Updated on

Sequoia and Kings Canyon were both amazing. Our first stop was the Sequoia area. Our good friend, with whom we had caved and climbed in the DC area before he also moved away, came out from the LA area.

We all went rock climbing and explored the parks including the massive General Sherman and General Grant sequoias, hiking Moro Rock, admiring the view from Panorama Point, and driving through Kings Canyon.

DISCLAIMER: Never Stop Adventuring contains links to affiliate websites and is a member of the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. When you click on and/or make a purchase through an affiliate link placed on our website, we may receive a small commission or other form of compensation at no additional cost to you. Please read our disclaimer for more info.

Rock Climbing

We found a wall on the hillside above the Hospital Rocks parking lot and found a route that we could trad climb. Part of the wall is visible 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. Kevin led, our friend 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.

General Sherman Tree

We later walked out to the General Sherman Tree. All we could say was “Wow!” This giant sequoia is the largest living thing on the planet by volume. Its age is estimated to be around 2200 years old. We had seen redwoods before but these were yet again different.

The difference between redwood trees and sequoia trees include redwoods preferring coastal climates and sequoias growing better in higher and drier regions. Redwoods grow taller, but sequoias have bigger trunks and thus are larger by volume.

Hike To The Top Of Moro Rock

The following day even hiked up to the top of Moro Rock for some amazing views.

General Grant Tree

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.

Drive Up To Panoramic Point

Kings Canyon

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.

Christine is the co-founder of Never Stop Adventuring, and an avid traveler who started traveling the world as a child growing up in a military family. She even lived in Germany for numerous years. Since then she has been to 48 U.S. states, 17 countries, and traveled the U.S. in an RV for over 7 years.

With her 3 kids, the adventures continued family travel style. She has planned and coordinated travel with kids for the last 10 years and shares family travel tips and tricks, destinations, costs and even the mistakes so you can be empowered to take your own family trips with confidence!