Day 14 - Gen. Sherman Tree - Sat, June 28, 2025

 Still at our forest shangri-la in Sequoia National Forest, we spent this morning visiting a different visitor center in the area. (Between the two neighboring Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks there are five visitors centers. Between those and all the roads and trails, it would take a very long time to fully explore the area.) 

This visitors center is located where the largest sequoias are standing. It was hard to believe that we still hadn’t seen the biggest trees in the park, aside from the Gen. Grant tree from yesterday. Another Civil War General got the naming honors for the tree we’d see today, General William T. Sherman. 

The “Sherman Tree” while not the widest tree, is overall the largest tree on earth. A half mile trail with a 200 ft elevation change was pleasant on the way down, but not so great on the way back up. A series of switchbacks helped ease the pain and I’m proud to say that yours truly made it back to the parking lot, and overall, my back is greatly improving.  Now, about that tree…








A drive around the park showed us why this is called the “Giant Tree Forest”. Gigantic sequoias lined the parkway, some just feet from the road




This is definitely a place I’d like to come back to someday. To me, it’s the postcard perfect example of what comes to mind when I think of the big timber and meadow of national parks. At least that of what we’re shown in childhood cartoons like Yogi Bear. (And no, we never did end up seeing Yogi or another of his kind)





Around midday, we loaded up the camper and descended to the valley far below. It’s amazing what contrast there is between the higher elevations and the lowlands out here. We went from a perfect 70 degrees up in the park to 102 in the valley near Fresno. The drive down took over an hour and we seemed to go through three different eco-systems, each unique to its own elevation. 

Stopping at a roadside stand for some sweet cherries did little to sweeten the sting of trading the beautiful mountains for the hot desert. Thankfully, Idaho is on the horizon.


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