Sequoia National Park

Sequoia Park is a US national park in the state of California, in the southern Sierra Nevada mountain range. Its area is 1635 km². It is named after the largest trees in the world that grow on its territory — giant sequoias. And it is here that the most gigantic of them all grows — the General Sherman Tree.

How to get to Sequoia Park

You can get into Sequoia Park from two sides.

From the south, the Ash Mountain entrance of Sequoia National Park is 55 km from the city of Visalia on Highway 198. Be careful: after the park entrance the road becomes narrow and winding.

From the north, through neighboring Kings Canyon, the Big Stump entrance of Kings Canyon National Park is 84 km from the city of Fresno on Highway 180. Highway 180 is straighter, less steep, and wider.

Fresno and Visalia also have the airports closest to the parks: Fresno Yosemite International Airport and Visalia Municipal Airport, which serves only domestic flights.

In the summer months the Sequoia Shuttle runs from Visalia. The fare, including park entrance, is $15. The bus will take you to the park and back, and you can also ride the Sequoia Shuttle around the park as much as you like.

At the same time of year, you can get to the park on a Greyhound bus from Visalia.

Sequoia Park hours

The park is open around the clock, all 365 days a year, but in winter, because of the weather, access to some of the park's sites may be closed. Also, in winter, after heavy snowfall the roads leading into the park may be closed until they are cleared.

Sequoia Park has 2 information centers.

The Foothills Visitor Center is open year-round: as of 2026, from 8:00 to 17:00 in summer, and from 9:00 to 16:30 from mid-October to mid-May. It is 1.6 km north of the Ash Mountain entrance.

The Lodgepole Visitor Center is open only in season — from late May or early June to late September or mid-October; in 2026 it is open from 8:00 to 17:00. It is 34 km north of the Ash Mountain entrance on the Generals Highway, or 3 km north of the largest tree in the world, the General Sherman Tree.

The visitor centers have a small museum and a movie theater, where you can learn the history of the park and study its nature. You can buy books and souvenirs related to the park, consult the rangers about interesting places and hiking trails, get a map, and buy guidebooks. There are public restrooms and drinking fountains, open around the clock.

The Lodgepole Visitor Center area also has a small grocery store, a fast-food café, a laundromat, and showers that take quarters.

Woman standing in the burnt hollow of a sequoia trunk, Giant Forest — Giant Forest

Sequoia Park entrance fees

7-day tickets (2026 prices):

Per car (and up to 15 passengers) — 35 dollars

Per motorcycle — $30

Per cyclist or hiker — $20

For visitors traveling by bus or in a vehicle seating 16 or more people — $20 per person

Annual passes (2026 prices):

Pass to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (Sequoia & Kings Canyon Annual Pass, US citizens and residents only) — 70 dollars

General pass, valid at all US national parks (America the Beautiful) — $80 for US citizens and residents, $250 for everyone else; without the pass, as of 2026, non-residents of the US aged 16 and over pay an extra $100 per person on top of the entrance fee

Children under 15 — free

Seasons

The period from April to June is considered the spring season in the park. Temperatures rise, but in many places there is still snow on the ground. Most campgrounds open from mid-May.

The crowds come to Sequoia Park in summer, when it is warm even at night, all the campgrounds are open, all the roads and hiking trails are open, and the rangers run numerous free programs. The summer season lasts from July to mid-September. The campgrounds are packed at this time, and as of 2026 almost all of their sites are by advance reservation only, so you need to book ahead. When we were in the park, about 10 signs saying “full” hung at the campground entrance, but after driving around and looking, we would find one or several free sites.

In the fall season, from late September to November, the nights get cooler. Snow falls in October, and some of the park's sights, for example Crystal Cave, close. Many campgrounds close as well.

The winter season is the longest in the park: it lasts from November to April. Most of the park's roads may be closed because of snow. Most campgrounds are also closed, and some information centers, in particular the Lodgepole Visitor Center, are not open. However, the upside of this period is the quiet, calm, and peace that reign in the park. At this time you can truly enjoy being at one with nature.

Sequoia Park map

To prepare for a visit to Sequoia Park, it is handy to look at the map in advance. The red lines are the park's main roads.

Map of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, USA — Sequoia Park map

What to see in Sequoia Park

Without a doubt, people come to Sequoia Park to see its unique trees — giant sequoias. You can walk among these giants along numerous hiking trails in Giant Forest, a sequoia grove in the center of the park that is home to 5 of the 10 largest trees in the world by wood volume. In this majestic ancient forest you feel like a tiny grain of sand. And the word “ancient” is no accident here: some of the park's trees are up to 3000 years old.

Giant sequoias of Giant Forest seen from below behind a wooden fence — Giant Forest

Tall sequoia with a hollow at its base and a woman beside it, Giant Forest — Giant Forest

The largest by volume and the heaviest of them is the General Sherman Tree. What's more, it is the largest and heaviest living organism on the planet. It is 83 meters tall, and its base is more than 11 meters in diameter. The tree weighs 1910 metric tons and is more than 2500 years old.

Woman with outstretched arms at the base of General Sherman — General Sherman Tree

Woman looking up at the trunk and crown of the General Sherman sequoia — General Sherman Tree

However, the incredible sequoias are not the park's only attraction. Following the main road, the Generals Highway, you can enjoy stunning views of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Road and viewpoint overlooking the Sierra Nevada mountains, Sequoia National Park — View of the Sierra Nevada mountains

And by turning off the main road, you can reach such remote places as Tunnel Log, a tunnel cut through a sequoia that fell in 1937, and Crystal Cave with its diverse collection of colorful minerals. They form blue, green, yellow, black, white, orange, and red deposits and formations along the walls, ceilings, and floors of the cave. The cave tour is paid: as of 2026 it costs $22 for adults and $11 for children and lasts 50 minutes. The 2026 tour season is over; the next tours are expected in late spring 2027. But note that both of these sights are inaccessible in the winter season.

Besides all this, the park is crisscrossed by numerous hiking trails through forests, past streams and waterfalls, up mountain peaks, and to lakes. To pick the most interesting routes, it is best to ask the rangers at one of the information centers for help.

Hiking trails and a wooden shelter among sequoias, Giant Forest — Hiking trails in Giant Forest

As for our impression of the park, the giant sequoias are certainly striking and definitely worth seeing, but there is no point in spending a lot of time on them. The USA is full of more impressive parks with more varied scenery.

Woman leaning on a sequoia trunk with a deep hollow, Giant Forest — Giant Forest

Woman beside the cross-section of a fallen sequoia and an information board — A fallen sequoia in cross-section

Woman in front of a cluster of sequoia trunks seen from below, Giant Forest — Giant Forest

Huge sequoia cone held in a hand inside a car — Big trees, big cones

Woman with outstretched arms by a sequoia behind a Sentinel sign, Giant Forest — The Sentinel

Where to stay in Sequoia Park

In and around Sequoia Park there are plenty of places to stay. There are both campgrounds and lodges with proper rooms.

The park itself has 7 campgrounds, with restrooms, drinking water, picnic tables, fire pits with a barbecue grate, and metal boxes for storing food and anything with a scent, so that bears can't get to them.

Atwell Mill Campground — as of 2026, $32 a night, 21 campsites, open only in the summer season.

Cold Springs Campground — as of 2026, $32 a night, 40 campsites, open only in the summer season.

Both of these campgrounds are for tents only; as of 2026 their sites are by advance reservation only. The nearest showers and grocery store are at the neighboring Silver City Resort.

Lodgepole Campground — as of 2026, $32 a night, 214 campsites, open from early spring to late fall (in October and November it operates depending on the weather). Showers, laundry facilities, and a gift and grocery store are nearby in Lodgepole Village.

Dorst Creek Campground — as of 2026, $32 a night, 218 campsites, open from early summer to early fall; as of October 2026 it is closed for repairs after storms, with no reopening date set. The nearest showers, laundry facilities, and grocery store are at Wuksachi Lodge.

Potwisha Campground — as of 2026, $32 a night, 42 campsites, open year-round.

Buckeye Flat Campground — as of 2026, $32 a night, 28 campsites, open from early spring to late fall, tents only; as of October 2026 it is closed for repairs after storms, with no reopening date set.

South Fork Campground — 10 campsites, tents only; as of 2026 it is closed until further notice: floods and landslides badly damaged the campground and the road to it.

The nearest grocery stores and restaurants for the last three campgrounds are in the town of Three Rivers.

Tent site with a picnic table and boulders at Lodgepole Campground — Camping at Lodgepole Campground

And, of course, for those who like their comfort, there are several hotels in the park and outside it. You can choose a suitable one and book a room, for example, here => Booking.com

From the diary · 2017

We drove to Sequoia Park from Los Angeles. On the way we planned to stop in Bakersfield to get a pass for all the national parks, and to spend the night at a campground in the park itself.

The road was beautiful, through the hills. A flowering median strip ran down the middle of the highway, and then came orchards that looked like orange plantations.

The road through the hills and the flowering median strip

We got the pass and stopped for a rest at a McDonald's: there was still about an hour, maybe more, to go to the campground. The road into the park itself is very scenic: we drove through the mountains, past lakes and mountain rivers.

On the way to the park — lakes and mountain rivers

And then came the sequoias — incredible, enormous giants. We also saw the General Sherman Tree, described above.

Among the giant trees

A night at the campground

The campground is made up of many separate sites, and almost all of them were taken. Our site had room for a tent, a table with benches, a fire pit, and a box where you have to put your food away so bears can't get to it, plus parking for one car. Several sites share a wooden cabin with toilets and a big sink for washing dishes; the water in it is cold. There is a store, a snack bar, and showers with hot water; a shower cost 2 dollars in 2017. A creek ran nearby. There was no cell signal at the campground.

Our tent at our campsite

The creek next to the campground

The tent was our own — we had bought it before our previous trip. But we had neither foam pads nor a mattress: in Malaysia we had slept without them and thought we would buy them later. We went to bed in the tent, but the ground was cold, and we had to move to the car.

There are bears in the park, but we didn't see any — Pavel did see a deer, though.

We also finally put to use the camping stove we had bought in Nepal. We cooked beans with ketchup and mustard on it — they turned out really quite tasty — and ate them with corn tortillas. The tortillas turned out bland and not tasty, and we had bought a whole bag of them, so we had to finish them anyway.

From here we drove on to Yosemite. The pass had already paid off: without it, we would have paid 60 dollars to enter these two parks (in 2017).

from Alexandra's diary