The things I’m about to detail are what we visited on the Sequoia side of the parks, but we got there from our campsite on the Kings Canyon side. This is out of order of how we actually did this trip, but I want to close out my Sequoia thoughts before moving on to our visit to Kings Canyon.
Tokopah Falls
There was really only one thing we wanted to do in Sequoia National Park that we didn’t have the time to do while we were camping on the Sequoia side, and that was hiking to Tokopah Falls. Based on the reviews on Google Maps and conversations with park rangers, I definitely wanted to see it. It is about a 50 minute drive from the Kings Canyon entrance.
Let me tell you, the hike to Tokopah Falls was STUNNING from START TO FINISH. Some hikes you do because there’s a beautiful destination, and some you do for the beautiful journey. This hike has both. It’s a perfect hike- beautiful throughout, not too long, not too short, not too easy, not too hard, fun rocks to climb on and explore, a flowing river, and a beautiful waterfall!
I was told by a park ranger that the hike was not worth it if the water wasn’t flowing, and since we were there in September, historically speaking the water had dried up by then. However, we went in 2023 and the previous winter had record snowfalls, so we were lucky that the waterfall was flowing beautifully. But based on my experience, I think it would be worth it even without the waterfall.
I literally spent the entire hike scheming to myself ways to make traveling and living in nature a full-time gig. I still haven’t figured that out!
The pictures just do not do it justice.
Revisit to Big Trees Trail
The other Sequoia trail we did on a Kings Canyon day was a revisit to the Big Trees Trail. I had done this loop on my own already, but I was so in awe of it that I had Chris do it with me before moving on to Yosemite National Park. This time, we hadn’t already hiked 10+ miles that day, so our legs could handle the 1.5 miles trail from parking at the Giant Forest Museum, which is about a 15-minute drive from the Tokopah Falls Trailhead. This trail is in a beautiful meadow, and, as the name of the trail suggests, has plenty of big trees to stand in awe at.
In my next post about following the Road to the Half Dome, I will tell you how to maximize a short visit to Sequoia National Park with less than 6 miles of hiking!
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