Sequoia National Park

We left the coast and head back inland for our final stop on our USA roadtrip, and what a place to end on, the Sequoia National Park, the third national park to be inducted. (And we promise this is the last post with lots of trees)

We started at the northern end of the park, winding our way up to the Big Stump grove, so called for the huge Tree stumps that are a left over relic of the logging days. One of the biggest, nicknamed the Mark Twain stump, which was one one of the biggest trees in the world at 91 meters high and 28m in circumference. It took 2 men 13 days to cut it down back in the late 1800's, all so they could put pieces of it in a museum (apparently one piece is in the British museum in London). We went on to see the third largest tree in the world, named the General Grant. Not the highest or the wider but the this largest tree by volume. Pretty epic.

After a very dark night in our campsite up in the hills we rise early and did a solid 15km hike around the Giants Tree Grove, not bad considering we were at 2200m altitude. We stopped by the most famous tree in the aream, the General Sherman tree, officially the Number 1 largest tree in the world. Honestly it didn't look any bigger than the Grant tree but we'll take their word for it. They were doing some controlled burns in the area so our route had to take a detour via a shuttle bus to make it down to the Big Trees Museum, a bit of a niche museum to be honest but it had some pretty good exhibits.

Our campsite wasn't busy and we saw a few deer at dusk eating a tasty looking bush nearby. We are in bear country so they couldn't have eaten our food as it was safely stored in a bear proof box. We've also learnt from warning documents hanged around the campsite what to do if you come across a bear, don't run and shout "Get out of here bear" 🤭

A quiet night back at the van and a few rhum and soda to celebrate the last night we'll spend with her. She's been a solid companion and seen us do just over 4100 miles (6600 km). We'll miss her but I'm happy to be back in a hotel room with a hot shower 🚿.Read more