We’re now onto the third destination of my big California road trip, and this was a totally unexpected two days in Sequoia. We expected big trees, we expected lots of hiking but one thing we definitely didn’t expect…SNOW! Where do I even begin?! It was such a magical experience and I’m so glad we were able to visit the park when it looked like a snowy winter wonderland, even if I had packed mostly for warmer climates.
The Lowdown
Location: Three Rivers / Sequoia National Park
Length of Stay: 2 nights
Vital Info: Be prepared for all climates, make sure you have a warm jumper, boots and jacket
Where to Stay
We packed up our camper van, left Yosemite and headed to Three Rivers, a small town in Sequoia. Again, we didn’t actually stay in the National Park as it was sold out but this location was absolutely perfect. We stayed at the Sequoia RV Ranch, a super friendly family run RV site with a very cute camp dog called Duke. It was super cheap at around $30 a night, so very ideal for a road trip! The campsite was situated by the river, and there’s a natural swimming area which we didn’t get round to using but overall a decent place to stay for a couple of nights.
The town itself was a real old school America town that’s basically a long road with signs of life either side of it. We loved the local River View restaurant which felt like something out of Sons of Anarchy, a popular haunt for the bikers to stop for a few beers and a burger. I found that even the small towns were pretty geared up for veggies, and more than happy to make a meal vegan friendly.
[Camping ain’t no fashion show]
What To Do
We spent our first evening playing scrabble with a few beers at the campsite followed by dinner at River View. A little research and we decided to catch the local shuttle bus up to the actual National Park itself, it’s around 45 minutes away and we warned the roads can be a little tricky as there’s so many twists and turns. We didn’t need any more convincing. We hopped on the shuttle and started to notice that the cars on the other side of the road had snow on their roofs. Weird? Why was there snow?
Oh.
Luckily I’d packed my jumper and had my waterproof on me, but I still absolutely FROZE in the generous 5 degrees. Despite the cold, it was extra special hiking around the park in the snow. I felt as though I was in a very peculiar dream. The famous Sequoia trees were ultra impressive, and so so huge. They’re overwhelming to say the least, I could barely bend my neck back enough to see the top of them! We completed two hikes, and kept having to nip into the museum between walks to warm our faces and hands up. Not quite what I expected in California! Oh and we also got to see the WORLDS biggest tree, Sherman. That was kinda cool. As it’s a National Park, hiking is your main activity so it’s time to get the walking boots out.
Halfway through one of our hikes we caught site of a real life deer mooching about its everyday life, I think I stood looking at it for a good twenty minutes. So damn cute!
Two nights was the perfect amount of time to stay in Sequoia and I would suggest only spending one day exploring the park as it isn’t quite as big as Yosemite. I’m so glad we decided to include this stop on our trip, and stay tuned for my next post as we ditch our walking boots for three nights in Sin City.
