TWO National Parks in TWO DAYS: Sequoia and Kings Canyon

for the next 2 days we're exploring our 50th and 51st national parks Sequoia and King's Canyon located in California stunning Sierra Nevada mountains these two separate parks are managed together and perfect to experience in one visit here you'll find towering Giant Sequoia my neck is definitely going to hurt after staring up at these all day long gorgeous Mountain views and rugged Peaks rushing rivers and waterfalls scenic drives and fun features to explore this is a little more adventurous than I was in anticipated and we're starting our adventures in seoa National Park to see its famous namesake [Music] trees seoa National Park was established in September 1890 making it the second oldest National Park in the United States its purpose is to protect giant sequoia trees the largest trees on Earth by volume and the General Sherman tree is the largest of them all I can't believe this is a tree this thing is so [Music] massive the General Sherman tree is of 102.6 ft and a total volume of 5258 cubic feet there are taller trees and there are wider trees but General Sherman contains more wood or volume in its trunk than any tree on Earth and this thing is so thick the camera isn't really capturing just how thick this thing is there's a branch up there that is basically the thickness of a regular size tree and we read on the sign that its thickest branch is 6.8 ft wide absolutely crazy to make a human chain around General Sherman I like to call it Big Sherm you need about 20 people with their arm stretched out holding hands and then the volume is equal to about 34 of our vans that's according to my really quick 5sec calculations on my phone but General Sherman isn't the only impressive tree to see here the park is full of them and to see more we're going to continue on to the Congress Trail [Music] giant seoa only grow on the western slopes of California Sierra Nevada mountains and around onethird of all naturally occurring seoa grow in both seoa and King's Canyon these Giants are part of the Redwood family along with Dawn redwoods the smallest of them all and Coast redwoods the tallest of them all and the kind you'll find at Redwood National Park in Northern California and compared to the coast redwoods giant seas are shorter but their trunks are a lot [Music] thicker since this hike is called the Congress Trail they've actually named two of the most beautiful groups of trees here after the two bodies of the Congress the Senate and the house besides the size of these trees one thing I am loving about them is the color they have this orangish tint to them which just contrasts so beautifully against all of the greenery around and something that I've noticed compared to the other trees around here the bark just has more of a smooth kind of appearance to it and they're really bare until you get all the way closer to the top where they get really bushy my neck is definitely going to hurt after staring up at these all day [Music] long oh your head almost touches I know I have to duck I'll probably hit it right here [Music] close the park may be most famous for its giant seoa trees but there is a ton more scenery to see here so we're going to take a quick break from its towering trees and head to toopa Falls [Music] we have just about made it to the end of the trail and this is TPA Falls this Beast Cascades down over 12200 ft over multiple levels and it is super impressive especially here in late May with all the snow melt this waterfall is Raging [Music] this waterfall is wild not only is it insanely powerful but it also has a pretty epic Mountain backdrop there's this mountain off to the side of it called The Watchtower which has kind of a jagged cone shape to it and just a combination of the mountain scenery and the waterfall and all these smaller waterfalls cascading down the rocks on the side this is [Music] amazing we have popped into the giant forest Museum which is a free small Museum here in the park that talks all about giant sequoia and one of the most interesting in things that I've learned since being in here is the role of fires in the life of seas and you may be thinking fires that's bad it'll burn all Sequoia down but actually Fire's play a very vital role in the health and the growth of the giant seoa over time branches and leaves and other debris litter the forest floor which makes it really hard for seedlings to grow and flourish but what fires do is they burn up all this debris and they create a really fertile soil then simultaneously the heat from the fire is opening up the cones of the Giant seoa and the seedlings are coming flooding out and Landing onto this fertile soil which gives them a better chance at success all right I'm going to play the role of a Little Seedling I'm going to spin the wheel to see what my fate is Big Money big money big money no whammies a a squirrel ate me Story of My Life cine brought up a good point she said in game shows the thing has to go all the way around and mine only went like a quarter so I'm going to spin it again [Applause] same fate SCH got me see if I have a better outcome good spin I've always wanted to be on the prices I ha or Wheel of Fortune oh man seed lands in bad spot never sprouts [Music] so our plan for the rest of the day is to hike to Morrow Rock for Sunset we thought the road to the trail head would be opening today for the season but unfortunately it's not so we're going to have to walk there instead and it should be about 3 mil round trip [Music] we made a quick detour at the tunnel log which is a tree that you can drive through this 275 ft tall Sequoia fell across the road in late 1937 and the following summer a 17t wide and 8ft tall tunnel was cut through the tree to make it a visitor attraction even if we had been able to drive here our van is about 2T Too Tall so we're going to walk through it instead [Music] [Applause] we ended up having a little bit more time than we thought we would have so we threw in another detour and we just came up to Hanging Rock which is a rock that's just precariously perched right on the ledge it'll it'll stay there for now [Music] [Music] this Trail is so fun because it's not actually a trail it's just 350 steps with railings that you climb all the way to the top of the Dome [Music] [Music] this Trail might be short but it has a little adventurous Edge to it [Music] [Music] you have absolutely epic views of the sieras from up here and this park is home to some pretty impressive peaks in the range including Mount Whitney the tallest mountain and the lower 48 unfortunately we're here a bit too early in the season to do some of the harder and higher elevation hikes in the park but I'm just glad that we we at least get to see all the beautiful mountains and we will be back someday to get all up in them today we're exploring King's Canyon National Park and we're kicking things off with sunrise at panoramic point we struggled so much to get up this morning and I was this close to saying let's just skip it and sleep in but just like every time we go see the sunrise I never ever ever regret it and pro tip bring coffee when you go see the sunrise because it makes it so much better [Music] we're walking to the General Grant tree and on the way there's this giant sequoia that fell many years ago and now it's hollowed out and you can actually walk through it how cool is that [Music] not only does seoa National Park have giant sequoia but so does King's Canyon this is the General Grant tree which has a volume of 46,6 and8 cubic feet we had read that it was the second largest tree by volume in the world but this sign over here says it's the third one so we're not sure which one it is but either way it's a big one but beyond that it also has some other unique titles like the nation's Christmas tree which it has held since 1926 and still has a yearly Christmas ceremony it is also the country's only living National Shrine dedicated to the memory of the men and women of the Armed Forces [Music] it is so hard to grasp just how giant these Sequoia are General Grant could apparently be filled with 159,000 basketballs and reading different stats like that about how many things could fit inside the trees definitely helps put it into perspective but it's still just so hard to wrap my mind around [Music] [Applause] King's Canyon National Park is split into two areas a smaller area that we were just in this morning and then a larger area that is mostly Wilderness best explored by backpacking unfortunately the road to this larger area is closed right before the park entrance due to damage the road is supposed to open back up this summer but we're a bit too early for that so our plan for the rest of the morning and the afternoon is to drive the road as far as we can [Music] the views on this drive are jaw-dropping we are driving down into King's Canyon with the south fort Kings River rushing right through it I originally did not think we would be able to drive this far down the road I thought that it was all closed but then I learned the other day that this stretch of the highway which is in the National Forest is actually open up until it meets back up with the national park and I am just so glad that it is because we didn't even think we'd get to see King's Canyon at all while we were here and it is completely Blowing Me Away blowing All my expectations out of the water [Music] we're not even in the national park right now and I'm just so confused why it's certainly National Park level scenery this is freaking epic yeah King's Canyon even the part that isn't technically the National Park is so underrated we're not even able to go into the back country which is where I hear this place really shines and I'm just I just can't stop freaking out about just how beautiful it is here [Music] all right we made it as far as we can go on the road but there are a handful of things we want to check out on the way back and first up is Grizzly Falls which is just a few minutes up the [Music] road there is so much Mist coming off of this it's pretty uncomfortable it's really cold can't stand here for too long the beauty of SEO and Kings Canyon National Parks is not just above the surface the parks are surprisingly home to 275 caves with Crystal Cave and seoa being the most popular to visit unfortunately it is closed this year so we cannot go to that one but thankfully along this highway there is a cave called boen Cavern that is open so we're going to go on their 1hour tour to get to the entrance of the cave we are walking right along the river through the steepest part of King's Canyon it's also the steepest walkway too to get up to the [Music] cave boen Cavern is a marble Cavern that formed over a 100,000 years ago and is named after Jay putam boen a Hume Lake logger who discovered the cavern and lived inside it for several years even using it to entertain others this was put and Bon's entertaining room he would get groups of people that were interested in coming and Cavern on the tour you get to walk 750 ft into the cavern going through narrow and low sections the ceilings get really low in here and she called this headache maker hallway and I did just hit my head so the name is true and along the way you get to see some different formations all with some pretty fun names like the wedding cake the upside down City pancakes with butter and syrup on top the brain wavy formations that resemble curtain curtain drapes and the Christmas tree which forms an inch per Century this is a little more adventurous than I was anticipated and I love [Music] it uh there are only a few places on the planet we can experience a full- on Blackout like this a deepen up Cav or a cavern uh an isolation tank bottom of the ocean oh wow I can't see anything it is peach black can't see your hand your face that cave tour was so much more adventurous than I thought it would be you had to duck down and kind of squeeze through some smaller spaces the ground was slick we got to walk through a stream in the cave it was so fun but man so many of the formations were named after Foods pancakes bacon now I'm just [Music] hungry time and places are all in who you share them with for our final stop before heading back into King's Canyon National Park we're at Hume Lake and since Kona is not allowed on the parks Trails we're taking her on a walk on the Hume Lake Trail which goes all the way around the lake and the leaks in the weekends keeping close who you spending with and in time what you find is the time is we brought some goodies to have a little picnic on the lake they do have a Snack Shack here we're hoping to get some burgers fries and shakes from but unfortunately they're closed today so we're just going to make our own little snack Shake we are making ourselves a little Sherie board we have some crackers some carrots some pickles some cheese some nuts some dip we throw some salami on here and some pears bada bing bada boom food always tastes better outside who needs milkshakes and fries and burgers forget that stuff and aage who you share it with the last few spots we've checked out aren't in the Parks we highly recommend adding them to your Parks itinerary the cave was so fun and I am in love with this Lake I love the mix of the lake with all the trees and the creek feeding into it and the mountain views and while we were kind of bummed at first that not everything we wanted to do in the Parks was going to be open or accessible this time of year I think it was actually kind of a good thing because it's kind of encouraged us to seek out these other things outside of the parks that we maybe wouldn't have come to otherwise and I'm especially glad we came to this Lake because on our hike I saw fish in the water and I saw them biting bugs on the surface I'm coming back for them tomorrow go slay I'm going to try to slay we'll [Music] see we're back in King's Canyon National Park and for our final Adventure we're hiking Big baly Ridge it should be just under 6 miles and have some amazing views at the top [Music] [Applause] [Music] big Baldi gets its name for its bald Dome appearance but you could argue that the name has a second meaning the trail takes you through a burn area with down trees and obstacles plus many bald trees and while the big Baldi Summit has amazing views we suggest continuing about a mile further for even more sweeping views of the area [Music] we just realized that King's Canyon is our final California National Park California is home to nine national parks more than any state we've now officially been to all nine of them and they have all been absolutely incredible with such varied scenery and types of experiences but our California National Park Adventures aren't quite over just yet next we're heading north to revisit one of our favorite national parks yane [Music]