The Best View in Sequoia {Moro Rock}

This was our FAVORITE park of Sequoia National Park! Getting to the trailhead involved driving the winding Generals Highway thru the park to the visitor center where we were required to hop on a shuttle due to the road being too narrow for two vehicles to pass. Shuttle drivers use radios to coordinate so they don't have to pass each other. 

This is one of the only spots to pull over along the road in Sequoia to admire the view.

From this trailhead, it's a short .25 mile climb up 350 rock stairs to the top! 

From here you can see the spot along the road where we had stopped to admire the view.

At this point we saw a young man beginning to rappel from the top! Not sure if this was actually allowed.

From the top you have 360 views of the Sierra Nevada peaks, San Joaquin Valley, Kaweah River and the Sequoia- Kings Canyon Wilderness.

After soaking in the views, it was time to head back down.

From the shuttle we had a different view of Moro Rock.

We passed the Tunnel Log on our way to the Crescent Meadow. This is tall enough for a small car to drive beneath.

Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park are connected by one road. We spent one day driving a loop from our campground, up thru Sequoia to Kings Canyon and back down to the campground. We've been on a lot of scary roads, but this was one of the worst. It's very high, narrow, winding with switchbacks and there are no guardrails or anything. It's common courtesy to pull over when possible to allow vehicles behind you to pass, however the guy in front of us for half an hour didn't. Once a long line had built up, we had a very scary moment when the car behind us, passed us and the lead car but nearly ended up in a head-on collision! Not good! 

Because the park has narrow roads, you must either ride a shuttle or walk a very far distance to reach the popular trailheads. Our first stop was our favorite. We hiked Moro Rock, which was so amazing, it deserves its own post. (See that next.) Afterwards we hiked the Crescent Meadow where we found a BEAR! 

We watched her for fifteen minutes before continuing on our hike. She remained feeding in the meadow, never noticing us. 

Here we saw a cabin made from just one tree on its side! If you look to the right, you see the tree continue.

The kids were having a pushup competition, so they would randomly stop to get some in along the trail.

You can't go to Sequoia without visiting the famous General Sherman Tree, the largest tree in the world at 275ft! It's so tall, the designated photo location is very distant so you can fit the whole tree in the frame. Look closely to see people at the base of the tree for reference. I know it's hard to comprehend just how enormous it is!

We continued up Generals Highway entering Kings Canyon NP. It was getting late and we definitely didn't want to be driving the hazardous roads in the dark, so we stopped to admire a few a the viewpoints, but didn't do any more hiking. Here's the view of Big Baldy from the Redwood Mountain Overlook. 

The Kings Canyon Overlook had a ton of cairns. 

I went off to look for birds and came back to find them playing "baseball" with pinecones and a stick.

Next: Check out our favorite hike in the park: Moro Rock!