Sequoia National Park - Both Ani and I have always felt at ease amidst Redwoods. We love the “giant”-ness of these magnificent earthlings. The fragrance of hiking in the woods brings a feeling of calm to our senses. In the past few years, we have hiked a few trails at Muir Woods and Big Basin Redwoods but had never been to Sequoia National Park (until now).

Sequoia was our first National Park stop on our road trip from the City by the Bay - San Francisco to Toronto. It was hard to say good-bye to our beloved city San Francisco after falling in love with its culture, vibe, food and our condo over the past few years. But that is a different post I am yet to write (I guess it will take a lot out of me to write a goodbye, although Ani says - It’s not a good-bye; it’s an - “until we meet again!”). 

The park is at ~7,000 feet elevation  and our first stop at Sequoia was the the world’s largest named tree General Sherman. It is ~2,300 years old and its volume is ~52,000 cu feet. There is a cute 3 mile hike connected to General Sherman called the Congress trail. The hike was among the beautiful giants with Robin Magpies flying around and a few hikers for company. It was a 3 mile loop with an elevation gain of 490 feet. After the hike, we decided to take a break for a lunch picnic at Wolverten. A secluded space for picnic with granite mountains in the background and a very few families created a perfect place for a break. 

We also drove our car with the roof basket through the “tunnel log” as a ritual. It was fun and we got lucky that there was no line on a Sunday evening 🙂.

My favorite hike of the day was to the Tokopah falls. It was an out and back 3.4mile hike supposedly, but it felt longer. We were tired midway in the hike ( because of not working out for the past month and a half and the elevation). Ani is a sucker for waterfalls. The hike was a moderate hike with the last .5 mile on boulders. The view from the top was totally worth the elevation gain of 600 feet. The hike reminded me of climbing Yosemite upper falls. My favorite part was taking a nap under the sun with a waterfall as white noise 🎶. Ani spent an hour setting up his cameras and taking a “perfect” shot but honestly mine lying on a rock and taking a waterfall shot is just the perfect end of this album..LOL. 

Ending the post with a quote that I read at Sequoia -

“ Wilderness is not so much a place but a feeling...” Roderick Nash