{"id":2129,"date":"2018-05-31T19:29:55","date_gmt":"2018-05-31T19:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/?p=2129"},"modified":"2018-06-12T21:16:11","modified_gmt":"2018-06-12T21:16:11","slug":"kings-canyon-and-sequoia-national-parks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/31\/kings-canyon-and-sequoia-national-parks\/","title":{"rendered":"King\u2019s Canyon and Sequoia National Parks"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Yosemite, we headed back south towards King\u2019s Canyon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We were eager to get away from the RV parks, so we had done quite a lot of research on places where a huge RV can park in the national forest. After confirming with one of the forest rangers, we decided to park in between King\u2019s Canyon and Sequoia national parks in the Sequoia National Forest near Hume.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kitty Itty Bitty enjoyed her many walks.<\/p><\/div>\n

We found a paved forest service road with a turn off (that was also paved) and parked up off the side of that rarely traveled road. It was a fantastic spot to be. Even on Memorial Day weekend, we saw few cars over the six days.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Campfires kept us very busy.<\/p><\/div>\n

The parking spot was indicative of our time there. We were able to celebrate Scott\u2019s birthday. He loved his big ticket gift of a Mavic Air drone. I think we are all still very impressed with how amazing the images are and how easy it is to fly.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Thank goodness we had a fire permit. The birthday brownie burned bright!<\/p><\/div>\n

The first day out exploring the national parks, we drove the fifteen minutes to Grant Grove in King\u2019s Canyon. The General Grant tree was enormous. It made the couple of sequoias we saw in Yosemite laughably small.<\/p>\n

\"\"

A sequoia chopped down over 100 years ago is still in good shape, only now it is a tunnel.<\/p><\/div>\n

The weather wasn\u2019t so great, so the kids knocked out their junior ranger badges and we spent the next couple of days hiking around our RV and having campfires. We did make the incredible drive down highway 180 so that we could fully appreciate the beauty of The Canyon.<\/p>\n

\"\"

King\u2019s Canyon\u2019s beauty lies in the valleys that glaciers have carved.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sequoia was a little farther away at almost an hour drive.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It turned out to be well worth the trip. General Sherman (the largest living tree in the world) was one of many very cool sightings.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The pictures of the trees simply don\u2019t show how large they are. This chart gives better size examples.<\/p><\/div>\n

Caden and Scott weren\u2019t feeling 100%, so they hung back while Keali and I took off to do a couple of mile hike through the Giant Forest. \u201cGiant Forest\u201d is an understatement.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Around every corner was a new and usually shockingly big tree or grove. I was happy we made the stop at the two national parks, and they were really beautiful in their own ways.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The Senate is a grove of trees that likely sprouted at the same time.<\/p><\/div>\n

By far though, our best memories of these parks will be more focused on where we were camping and all the amazing things we saw there.<\/p>\n

\"\"

A bear track VERY near our camping spot.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

A brightly colored red snow flower we spotted. It doesn\u2019t have chlorophyll so can\u2019t perform photosynthesis. Instead, it gets nutrients from fungi.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

A triple trunk sequoia near our camping spot. It appeared to be bigger than both the General Sherman and General Grant trees.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

We found some deep cracks while on a hike along some of the glacier carved granite. This was was deeper than Caden is tall.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

The giant sequoias are fascinating. This tiny cone typically only releases its seeds (each the size of a oat) after a fire. The protective bark of the sequoia can be over a foot thick and protects the parent tree from burning.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Yosemite, we headed back south towards King\u2019s Canyon. We were eager to get away from the RV parks, so we had done quite a lot of research on places where a huge RV can park in the national forest. After confirming with one of the forest rangers, we decided to park in between King\u2019s…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[123,133,49,24],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"category-kings-canyon-national-park","9":"category-micha","10":"category-united-states","11":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/018E4F76-7005-41C2-912D-BA851EAB7F80.jpeg?fit=3264%2C2448","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8k10v-yl","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2109,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/27\/the-amazing-yosemite-national-park\/","url_meta":{"origin":2129,"position":0},"title":"The Amazing Yosemite National Park","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"May 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"After leaving Los Angeles, we bypassed King\u2019s Canyon and Sequoia and went directly to Yosemite National Park. We had heard that the peak season would be something to avoid since it is one of the busiest parks, and it was to start in the next seven days. We were glad\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "California"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/united-states\/california\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/343FB75E-14CD-4201-A505-5FB7237DE645.jpeg?fit=1102%2C1200&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/343FB75E-14CD-4201-A505-5FB7237DE645.jpeg?fit=1102%2C1200&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/343FB75E-14CD-4201-A505-5FB7237DE645.jpeg?fit=1102%2C1200&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/343FB75E-14CD-4201-A505-5FB7237DE645.jpeg?fit=1102%2C1200&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/343FB75E-14CD-4201-A505-5FB7237DE645.jpeg?fit=1102%2C1200&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1978,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2018\/04\/30\/arizona-after-tucson\/","url_meta":{"origin":2129,"position":1},"title":"Arizona After Tucson","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"April 30, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Petrified Forest Petrified Forest was so much better then I thought it would be. It is my favorite national park we have been to on this trip. The best part of it was you felt like you were on a different planet. Nothing there looked like Earth. I would definitely\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arizona"","block_context":{"text":"Arizona","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/united-states\/arizona\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/F0ED22B3-9328-4181-BD2F-AB163C7DC419-1024x768.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/F0ED22B3-9328-4181-BD2F-AB163C7DC419-1024x768.jpeg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/F0ED22B3-9328-4181-BD2F-AB163C7DC419-1024x768.jpeg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/F0ED22B3-9328-4181-BD2F-AB163C7DC419-1024x768.jpeg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1962,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2018\/04\/22\/petrified-forest-national-park\/","url_meta":{"origin":2129,"position":2},"title":"Petrified Forest National Park","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"April 22, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Petrified Forest was about two hours from our camping spot, so we shot for a relatively early start. To break up the drive, we stopped just outside of Winslow, Arizona to see the Meteor Crater. Other than actually seeing the almost-mile across crater that was created 10,000 years ago (by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arizona"","block_context":{"text":"Arizona","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/united-states\/arizona\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/D349AD97-2407-4109-AAB3-DDECB328B940.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/D349AD97-2407-4109-AAB3-DDECB328B940.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/D349AD97-2407-4109-AAB3-DDECB328B940.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/D349AD97-2407-4109-AAB3-DDECB328B940.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/D349AD97-2407-4109-AAB3-DDECB328B940.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1929,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2018\/04\/24\/the-grand-canyon\/","url_meta":{"origin":2129,"position":3},"title":"The Grand Canyon","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"April 24, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"On our second day in the national forest, we realized we were just over an hour from the south rim of the Grand Canyon. We had previously planned to camp for a few days there, but we were all so in love with staying in the forest that we decided\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arizona"","block_context":{"text":"Arizona","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/united-states\/arizona\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/9EB6C7E8-D311-4090-BDB8-565B47CD45CB.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/9EB6C7E8-D311-4090-BDB8-565B47CD45CB.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/9EB6C7E8-D311-4090-BDB8-565B47CD45CB.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/9EB6C7E8-D311-4090-BDB8-565B47CD45CB.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/9EB6C7E8-D311-4090-BDB8-565B47CD45CB.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1918,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2018\/04\/25\/a-week-of-drycamping-in-the-coconino-national-forest\/","url_meta":{"origin":2129,"position":4},"title":"A Week of Drycamping in the Coconino National Forest","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"April 25, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Our trip from Tucson ended just south of Flagstaff in the Coconino National Forest. I had learned of some good spots to drycamp (no hookups for the RV) in some of the roadschooling sites we are in. The place we ended up was nothing short of amazing. The forest in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arizona"","block_context":{"text":"Arizona","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/united-states\/arizona\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/0F3B33DB-431B-4947-B5DD-6BF1992F0EB9.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/0F3B33DB-431B-4947-B5DD-6BF1992F0EB9.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/0F3B33DB-431B-4947-B5DD-6BF1992F0EB9.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/0F3B33DB-431B-4947-B5DD-6BF1992F0EB9.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/0F3B33DB-431B-4947-B5DD-6BF1992F0EB9.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2152,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2018\/06\/01\/caves-in-pinnacles-national-park\/","url_meta":{"origin":2129,"position":5},"title":"Caves in Pinnacles National Park","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"June 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"We made the drive from Sequoia to Pinnacles. 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