Visiting Sequoia National Park for a few days, we were amazed to find a free spot to camp! We hadnt made reservations and had just left Yosemite after finding out their First Come - First Serve campgrounds were still closed for the seasond. The only open campgrounds were ones where you needed to make reservations 6 months in advance.
When we pulled into Sequoia, I sat talking with another visitor about his Jeep, when he asked where we were camped at. I told him we had just pulled in and were hoping to find any spot we could. He told me that there is a turnoff that leads you to the Sequoia National Forest, where you can boondock for free anywhere off the road. The best part is you're basically still in the park, or at least right on it's boundary.
While in the National Park, we took hundreds of pictures of the beautiful giant trees. Problem is we deleted probably half of them because they just dont show how big the trees actually are.
Our first day out in the park was a total waste. We took hundreds of images while hiking, and deleted almost all of them. What we found was unless you have an object near the base of the tree to show it's size, it just looks like any ol' tree.
Of all the images we took, these show the size of the magnificent trees the best.
I'm a short guy, so my truck has always seemed big to me (Stock F-250). This is the first time I looked at my truck and thought, "Boy does it look small!"
This was one of the largest Brown Bears we saw the entire time we were there and we saw 6 our first day alone. It was the size of a small cow, but when standing in front of this Sequoia, it looks like a small dog
Then of all the shots I took, this is my absolute favorite. This is the only one where you look at the image and just say "WOW!" every single time. That's my wife Cindy standing between two of the giants. She's 5'9" tall for a reference.
The silent giants are impossible to describe. Their branches dont even start till 100' in the air. Some are over 300' tall and many have been around before Jesus walked the Earth, just to give you a time frame to think about. It's pretty humbling to stand amongst them.
Full gallery can be seen
Here
Just thought I'd pass along some info incase any other RV'ers of photographers are planning a trip to Sequoia. First pull off from the Northern Entrance that says Big Meadows is where the free camping is. Make sure to put the wife or the husband in front of the tree when taking a picture...LOL
Happy Camping
Pat