Peter And Evie - Travel blog: Nov 12 - Sequoia National Park, California

Our last National Park before we end this leg of our RV travels is Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park. Today's journey was just to Sequoia National Park. Our campground is about 20 miles from the park. Once in the park, the main attractions are giant Sequoia Redwood groves and mountain peaks and vistas in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The Sequoia Redwoods only grow in a very specific environment, from 4,000 to 7,000 feet, where it is not too cold or too wet. They thrive on the west side of the mountains. Fortunately, the weather has been warm, so far. They tell me there is usually snow already in the mountains, and many roads are usually already closed.
Our whole drive today was only about 454 miles inside the park, but at 10 - 25 mph, it takes a while to drive it. Lots of steep, winding roads and switchbacks with beautiful overlooks. Here's a summary of our stops:

Hospital Rock - just an unusual rocky outcropping, that has the remains of native handprints on the rock wall.
Outlook - at one of the switchbacks there was a nice view of the Great Western Divide. Per Wikipedia, the Great Western Divide is a Sierra Nevada mountain range that forms part of the border between the Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. Some of the summits of the Great Western Divide reach well over 13,000 feet . We sat on a rock bench and ate our picnic lunch watching the incredible vista. It had a great view of Castle Rock (pinnacles) and Moro Rock (dome).
The Giant Forest Museum and the Big Trees Loop Trail - the Museum was interesting, and taught a lot about the Redwoods. How and where they grow, the need for fire periodically, the way their roots grow etc. We took a 1 mile loop trail around a wetland meadow (at least wet in the spring and summer--it was dry now). This is the perfect environment for the huge Sequoia Redwoods to grow. Very majestic and regal are these trees. They are wider and bigger than the ones in the northern California Redwood groves. Nice hike through the many trees in this grove.
Moro Rock - this rock is 6,725 feet tall. We drove a narrow road to an access trail up to the peak of this rock. Since the 30's, they have been climbing up to the summit. Since then, they have installed stairs-312 of them, along with ramps, and hand rails, so the trail up to the top is "safe". When Peter and I started climbing the stairs up, we had no idea how steep, and how high they were going. I was determined to get to the top. As long as I just looked at the stairs in front of my feet, and not at the vista, I was OK. Slow and Steady, climb, climb, stop and look--Oh MY!! Climb some more. Are we almost there yet? Still more stairs? Really? Just around the next couple of switchback stairways the folks coming down said. Several times. At one point, 3/4 of the way up, Peter had enough. So I went on. I am SO GLAD THAT I DID. I have never been to a mountain peak of 6,725 feet before. The top was a narrow platform ridge, with railing all around, overlooking the Sierra Nevada mountain range. What a view! Just the fact that I was able to actually climb up it, made my day. But for me, this was the highlight of the day!
Tunnel Log - a bit anticlimatical after the Moro Rock climb, but this is a log that is so big, they carved out a tunnel in it for the cars to go through. They don't allow that to happen anymore, at it is now not politically correct (or ecologically sound).