Sequoia National Park

This morning I had a large climb into the park, from 1000 feet to over 7000 feet. A large portion of that was done on the park entrance road which was a very narrow mountain road with a lot of steep switchbacks. It was relatively early in the morning, so traffic wasn't very bad. It was still a tiring climb with a lot a of breaks.

Probably the best part of the climb was that there was a mile long section of construction. While the actual construction was pretty annoying it was still nice because they only let traffic through once an hour. After I got through the construction I had an hour long period that there were no cars coming up behind me. Since it was still early in the morning no one was headed out of the park either, so I has the entire road to myself. I road down the middle of the road, still climbing, but less steeply. At that point the road was through a nice forested area with a lot of large ponderosas and a few sequoias mixed in.

By the time I got to the visitor center I had traffic passing me again, but I wanted to take a break anyways and do a little bit of exploring in the area. There was a small meadow surrounded by sequoias, since it provided enough water and sunlight for the trees to grow.

I continued on my way along the road to get to a few other groves of trees, especially the really big ones, like the Sherman tree, which is the largest in the world. Finally I got through the park to an area of national forest where I could camp for the night before I continue on my way to Kings Canyon tomorrow.

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