Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park

For the Fourth of July weekend, Chuck and I decided to spend it camping at the Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park. Since it was a holiday weekend, we were debating whether to leave after work on Thursday or wake up early Friday morning. We were betting that one of the first come-first serve campgrounds would have an available camp site. Not looking forward to driving six hours at night, we decided we had enough discipline to wake up early to be at the park by at least noon. We made good timing, but our hopes of finding a camp site were looking dreary as there was a line into the national park. All the campgrounds in Sequoia National Park were full and had to drive to Kings Canyon, 76 miles where we entered the park, and found plentiful of camp sites at the last campground in Kings Canyon. At the second to last campground they had a couple of sites available, but they were unappealing located either next to the bathroom or on a slope. We decided to risk losing them by driving to the last campground. And boy am I glad we did because they had a lot available and not next to the bathroom!

King's Canyon is known to be similar to Yosemite Valley, both being carved by massive glaciers during the last Ice Age. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Kings Canyon is the deepest canyon in the US with a maximum depth of 8,200 feet.

The Giant Sequoia trees are amazing! The park has one of the largest trees on Earth, the General Sherman tree which grows in the Giant Forest. The Giant Forest contains five out of the ten largest trees on Earth, in terms of wood volume. You don't realize their immensity until you get real close to them and you become disappointed that your camera can't take a picture of the whole tree unless you're far far away from them.

We went on a guided tour of Boyden Cave, a mile-long cavern in Kings Canyon.

Of course, on our way home, we had to make a pit stop! Chuck found Lengthwise Brewery in Bakersfield.

We had a sampler of all the beers brewed there and we couldn't leave without a growler of their beer. We're going to have a pretty big growler collection when we head back home to Seattle! We already have two from Stone (thanks to Chuck's parents who bought us another one), one from San Diego Brewing Co. and one from Lengthwise Brewery. And I think from our first visit to San Diego, we brought one back to Seattle from Coronado Brewery. No more, I swear!! Well...unless they're unique like the Stone growler.

Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park is beautiful and can't wait to go back again to do more hiking. However, I'm excited to take Chuck to Yosemite as well. We still have a lot to explore of California as well as other places on our list to visit!!