Sequoia National Adventure

Nickel (L) and Collin (R) at Sequoia National Park, 03-13

If you've ever googled 'Sequoia National Park', you'll be somewhat familiar with the massive, red-tinted bark trees that fill your computer screen. A whopping 5 hour drive from LA, Sequoia is known for its 300-foot tall and average 3,000-year old trees. At least, that's what we thought when we googled it.

Sequoia was, in the most polite way, one of the most underwhelming places we've visit so far. Not because it was lame or even boring / lame, but it just wasn't what we were expecting. Not even remotely.

Now, to say there weren't 300-foot trees would be a lie, because there were. The issue was, there just weren't all that many. From the photos online, Sequoia looks like it's flooding with beautiful, old, historical trees. I think me and my friends saw four in total on our trip.

Google vs. Trip Comparison, 03-23

Now, maybe there were more 'forest' type attractions up north more, but driving to the top of Sequoia would've slapped another couple hours to our already approaching 9-hour day trip, so we settled with the southern tip of the park.

Overall the trip was beautiful. I'd go again if I lived closer, or maybe was planning on staying the night, but even regarding camping I don't think Sequoia is in the top 3. I think it's mostly because Sequoia National Park looks like 80% of the country. Lots of mountains, greenery, and nature. Collin compared it to Mississippi, I compared it to upstate New York, hell, with no context we really could've been anywhere. And that's what makes our adventures so unique, generally speaking they're all 'you-have-to-be-in-California' to see and experience the true beauty of it. Sequoia lacked that.

But it did have some beautiful mountains. Plus, towards the beginning of the trip, we stopped at this great little diner off the side of the road, and that really is my favorite part of road trips in general. Overall we're glad we went, but we probably wouldn't do it again. At least, not any time soon.

Collin and Esme, 03-23