Yosemite National Park may get all the pub and glory but Sequoia National Park is an enticing alternative high up in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains.  If you like peace, solitude, adventure, rugged peaks, pristine lakes and rivers, along with it’s main attraction, Giant Sequoia Trees, then Sequoia is a preferred destination.  I worked a summer in Sequoia during my college years and it is a summer I will never forget. Where else can you encounter a black bear and a tarantula on the same day!

The park has immense elevation changes starting from the chaparral in the foothills at 1,300 feet, to dense sub alpine forests and onto the treeless alpine environment.  Sequoia is home to Mt Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48 states at 14,491 feet and the world’s largest tree, The General Sherman.