This morning we got up, had a bit of coffee but no breakfast, jumped into the truck and drove up the hill into Sequoia National Park. The road from Three Rivers (elevation 800′) to Moro Rock (elevation 7000’+) is quite twisty and narrow, but the scenery is stunning. California got some rain and snow this year so all the waterfalls, riverbeds and creek beds are swollen with water. We came through this way back in autumn of 2014 and all the watercourses were dry and the hills were brown.
Now the hills in the park are emerald green instead of gray and brown like in ’14. The dogwoods are in glorious bloom. The redwoods look lush although they are always impressive due to their gigantic proportions. Many trees over 20′ diameter and over 300′ in height line the highway as you pass through the park.
The Kaweah River, which was only a series of brackish puddles the last time we were here, is raging up in the park and is also very impressive as it passes right outside our living room window in our campground in the village of Three Rivers. The rain this last year have made all the difference.
We followed the road through the park taking every side road we could until we Wuksachi Lodge where we turned around and headed back down the same screwy road toward Three Rivers. Beyond Wuksachi the Sequoia Road only runs a bit further before entering King’s Canyon National Park. Due to our extremely low speed driving today, we just didn’t have sufficient time to continue into the adjacent park and still make it down the squirrely highway before dark. We found a shady pullout along the road and stopped for some grub that Peggy had been bright enough to bring along. If I would have been responsible for lunch, we probably would have arrived back home hungry.
The drive and scenery along the road from Three Rivers up through Sequoia is magnificent and ranks right up there with Colorado’s Hwy 12, Yosemite, the Shenandoah Valley, Custer State Park and the Black Hills for pure unadulterated majesty. Although off the beaten path, this is certainly a trip to include in your bucket list.
We got a few snapshots along today’s route and you can see them if you click here