How to Experience Sequoia Park Wonders Like Never Before in 2025

I’ve planned for a long time to visit the mighty giants in Sequoia Park and this time the planets aligned for us to finally do it. The great tour also had a few other scenic places like Yosemite or San Francisco, but the trees where the perfect opener for our roadtrip.

Sequoia Forrest 🌲

On a Sunday morning around 8:30 AM, we managed to leave our friend’s house in Glendale, with an estimate of 3h20m till our first checkpoint, Trail of 100 Giants Trailhead. We took Interstate 5, with plenty of traffic since it was the weekend covering the 4th of July so you can imagine everyone was heading home. By the way, we also chose this interval right after the national holidays because we were sure the crowds would be gone. All the way to Bakersfield all the lanes were full, even on Route 99, but once we split to 65 the road started to clear out. In Ducor City we made a hard right and the road was totally ours, only a few late pickups were heading back home.

Sequoia National Forest: Entrance & Parking

From this point on till we exited the Sequoia Forest our GPS signal was lost in the trees, so either have some offline maps or learn the road since it’s not that difficult to ride it. After a few photo stops, with temperatures rising in some parts to 106F we reached the trail at 12:00PM eager to explore the giants. We parked at the south entrance (there is also a north one), where a jolly fellow guided me to park the car, so that right after to require a 12 USD fee. What? A little bit frustrated after buying the Annual Pass for 93 USD the guy explained to me that Sequoia Forest is not covered by the pass and in fact we are paying for the parking. Without further ado, I just wanted to get in so paid the bucks and headed to the trail.

Trail of 100 Giants Trailhead

The trail is about 1.6 miles long with some sections closed because some of the giants collapsed or were affected by the fires. Even with temperatures around 90sF within plenty of water and a resting point under sequoia shadows, the walk is available for everyone. Along the way, you’ll explore some really impressive natural structures where 2 or 3 giants have grown forces together into a supertree or be witness to some of the oldest remains of a tree after over 200 years. We ended the trail in under 2 hours with a bunch of photos and stories to tell our friends, but not ready to end the day. So we grabbed a bite, some nuts and crackers which were shared with two Steller’s jay which at some point decided for a boxing match for the prey :)).

Nobe Young Falls

Next stop, Nobe Young Falls only a few miles away hidden from the public eye. Parked the car, made a short recon to find the trail, picked up the team, and headed for the water. Even if it’s not that far, if you want to take the right photo, you’ll need to take the steep route which can be quite challenging if you don’t have the right shoes. We didn’t so it was quite a ride and managed to fill ourselves with dirt and ash, but it was worth it. So we took some really nice shots, cooled our servers down with the cold water, and took our way back up to the car.

Some Stats

Forest Area	1.1 million acres
Established	1908
Giant Sequoia Groves	33 groves
Elevation Range	1,000–12,000 ft

Rest at Lindsay 💤

From this point on, till our place to rest in Lindsay, we just made some routine stops to buy some water or take some pictures along the way. We reached our stay at Super 8, not the movie, around 6 PM with a whopping 115F, yep about 43 degrees C. Checked in, and asked for some recommendations on a close by restaurant that is not fast food and we ended up across our hotel at Taqueria los Pericos y Cielito Lindo, which for 48 USD brought us the entire kitchen including the famous Mexican fajitas. Great choice with great food.

With our energy level back to its peak, we also made a short drive to a nearby market to get some water and food for the next day. We closed our day with some Uruguayan travelers in the hotel pool where Clara and Matilde enjoyed some splashing for everyone’s delight.

Sequoia Park ⛰️

Even if the place and the room were great, having temperatures above 100, I needed to wake up a few times to turn on and off the AC to have a pleasant temperature for Clara to rest. If that wasn’t enough the so-called breakfast we got, was a total joke where the peanut butter was closest to any type of breakfast you may think of.

Anyway, we wrapped up our stuff and hit the road with a short drive to Sequoia Park this time. We took the Sierra Drive as the main entry point to the park, continuing 198 also known as the General Highway from Matchin where we took a hard left from the 65.

Entrance & Parking

At 9:45 we were at the gates of the great giants, where a nice lady confirmed our entrance with the Annual Pass, to my delight. Here you can find the entrance fees. On our way to the Visitor Center, we had a few stops:

The Sequoia Sign (southern entrance),
Foothills Visitor Center – where you can get some guidance for your visit,
Tunnel Rock,
Amphitheater Point – great views over the valley,
The Four Guardsmen.

One hour later we finally got to the main starting point of all trails and where the Giant Forest Museum lies. Here we encountered some challenges in finding a place to park, so if you don’t see anything on the main one, check the one that is behind the hill, and with some luck, you can find a shaded spot. We were ready to explore, so we started our way to the Museum with a short trail to Beetle Rock to have some spectacular views. Once we hit the parking lot we visited the surroundings, along with the mighty Sentinel, took a bite and drank some water, and headed to Big Trees Trail.

Big Trees Trail

The place is magical, with a huge meadow surrounded by giant sequoias accompanied by rocks shaped in different forms by time. Standing high, fallen under their own weight, or burned by heavy fires through time we took some really nice shots to capture the magnitude of the place. Also just for short notice a black bear was enjoying the glazing sun along the bushes for everyone’s delight. We ended the trail by finding Clara’s tree where obviously we captured the moment in a few shots. Not too early, not too late, we still had some things to see. Our next stop is Moro Rock.

Moro Rock & Tunnel Log

A great thing about this place is that most of the things you’d like to see are pretty close. So instead of opting for the shuttle, we decided to check a few things on the way, so we took the car and drove up. Keep in mind that the Moro Rock parking lot has just a few spots, but being lucky we managed to find one after some moments of waiting and started our ascent. Stay covered, and have plenty of water with you because it’s pretty steep and most of the trail is not shaded at all. The good thing is that it’s a short climb, but the views are incredible. At a slow pace, the whole thing took about 30 minutes. Back to our car, we continued our route, to the Parker Group Sequoias and all the way to the Tunnel Log where we took a few shots, and where our rental was the main piece of the shots. Once again we were lucky enough to find the place at our own disposal, because right after a long queue of cars started to gather for the photo session.

General Sherman

To end our day in style, we had one more stop: General Sherman. Just a few miles away we parked our car and joined the herd, the trail to the iconic tree. Now the place was packed with people. The trail downhill took us about 15-20 minutes, and after wandering a bit to check the surroundings, we placed ourselves in the queue formed to take shots with the park VIP. Happy that we managed to cover the entire itinerary in time, we concluded it was time to wrap the day and head to our resting place, 320 km away in Sonora.

Some Stats

Largest Tree	General Sherman – 275 ft
Established	1890
Park Size	404,000 acres
Giant Sequoia Groves	~10 groves
Highest Point	Mount Whitney – 14,494 ft

Driving Sequoia Park

Obviously, I couldn’t help it and till we left the park area we made a few more stops for the books:

took some nice shots at the Sequoia Park (north entrance),
meet a deer that was wandering in a parking lot,
build a rock tower at Kings Canyon Overlook.

We stopped in Fresno for an authentic Mexican dinner at Don Pepe Taqueria, enjoying it just like the locals. Also tried to find some cold water, but none of the stores had freezers for it, so we needed to settle with some room-temperature stuff from Trader Joe’s. Around midnight we finally managed to reach our hotel in Sonora. What a day!

Tips & Tricks 🌟

Try to get here as early as possible to avoid the crowds, especially during the holiday season. I suppose this advice is valid for all places around the globe. Other things: