Episode Guest
Holly Streit, Public Affairs Specialist
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks
Park Stats
- Location: Three Rivers, California
- Date designated: September 25, 1890 (Sequoia) and March 4, 1940 (Kings Canyon)
- President when the monument was created: Benjamin Harrison (Sequoia) and Franklin D Roosevelt (Kings Canyon)
- Park size: 865,964 acres
- Highest elevation: 14,494 ft – Mt Whitney
- Lowest elevation: 1,370 ft – Keweah River
- Number of visitors last year (2024): 1,309,573 (Sequoia) and 699,389 (Kings Canyon)
- Interesting Facts:
- The parks were created to protect the giant sequoia tree from logging
- General Grant National Park was created 4 days after Sequoia (4 sq miles)
- 97% of the land is managed as a wilderness
- Home to the largest and 2nd largest trees in the world – General Sherman and General Grant
- Home to 11 species of fish, 203 species of birds, 73 species of mammals, 21 species of reptiles, 13 species of amphibians
Speed Round
What is your earliest park memory?
My earliest park memory is here, at Sequoia and Kings Canyon. I had not been to a national park until I was in my thirties, and I went on a backpacking trip out of Lodgepole, up to Ranger Lake, and around through Jail Pass. That was a life-changing moment for me. I moved out here within two years because it had such a significant impact on me.
What made you love the parks?
I love the solitude of the parks. It’s a good test of your body, your spirit, and the curiosity of nature. For me, it inspires just a ton of curiosity. I’m still curious. There’s so much to learn about these wild and diverse ecosystems, and the intention of being in nature is a gift to yourself in a modern age of fast-paced lifestyles and constant screen time.
What is your favorite thing about Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks?
Oh, the diversity of the ecosystems.
What is your favorite thing to do at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks?
Explore. I love hiking everywhere and learning.
What are three must-haves you pack for a park visit?
1. All of the safety stuff – food, water, sun protection, map, first aid kit
2. Layers
3. Binoculars
What is your favorite campfire activity?
S’mores and stories.
Tent, camper, or cabin?
Primarily tent.
Hiking with or without trekking poles?
I always have a pole attached to my pack.
And what is your favorite trail snack?
Fresh fruit.
What is the favorite animal sighting that you’ve had?
I love wildlife sightings, so any sighting that is at a safe distance.
What is your favorite sound in the parks?
I would say a running stream, but also bird song.
What is the greatest gift the parks give to us?
That connection to ourselves and the connection to nature.
Show Notes & Links
Transcript
This Dynamic Duo of Parks is home to two of the oldest trees in the world. If you’re looking to give it a hug, you’ll need to bring around 80 of your closest friends to surround it. Join us as we explore Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. I’m your host, Missy Rentz, and this is the Parks podcast.
Missy Rentz:
On today’s episode, we have Holly Strike, who is the Public Affairs specialist for Sequoia in Kings Canyon National Park. Holly, welcome to the Parks podcast.
Holly:
Hi. Thanks, Missy. I’m happy to be here.
Missy Rentz:
As always, we start with some park stats and these two parks are incredible. The parks are located in the Central Valley of California in Three Rivers, California. Sequoia was the second national park, and Kings Canyon was the 32nd National Park created. They were dedicated on September 25th, 1890 for Sequoia and March 4th, 1940 for King’s Canyon. We’ve got more to go into on that when we get into the episode. The presidents, when the parks were created. Benjamin Harrison for Sequoia and Franklin d Roosevelt for Kings Canyon. The size is 865,964 acres. The highest elevation is at 14,494 feet, and that’s Mount Whitney, and the lowest elevation is 1,370 feet at the Kaa River. You’ll correct me on that, if I’m wrong on that. Pronunciation. Visitors. Okay. Okay. Visitation last year was a record visitation with 1,309,573 visitors to Sequoia and 699,389 visitors to Kings Canyon. These parks are incredible and everybody wants to see them. Some fun facts. The parks were created to protect the giant Sequoia tree from logging. General Grant National Park was created four days after Sequoia. That’s what became King’s Canyon, and we’ll tell you more about that later. 97% of the land is mill is managed as wilderness. It’s the home of the largest and second largest trees in the world. That’s General Sherman and General Grant, and the parks are home to 11 species of fish. 203 species of birds, 73 species of MA mammals, 21 species of reptiles, and 13 species of amphibians. Holly, I love this park.
Holly:
Oh, you are not the only one.
Missy Rentz:
Clearly with those numbers. So let’s get into a little bit first, because it can be very confusing sometimes you see it as Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park. Sometimes you see Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park. Is it one park or is it two parks?
Holly:
Yeah, it is actually two different parks, but they are managed as one and both spectacular. So it can be confusing, but because the boundaries touched and it’s managed as one, a lot of times we just refer to it as Sequoia and King’s Canyon.
Missy Rentz:
And why is it important that these parks are part of the National Park Service?
Holly:
I think possibly every person who has visited these national parks can probably share a personal story of the significance of their visit and let’s multiply that by 2 million people and that’s just the direct impact of these visitors last year. Sequoia and Kings Canyon have been offering their natural beauty. Inviting expedition and adventure, having hosting a natural habitat for countless wildlife and flora and so much more as protected lands for the past 135 years. So let’s think about this just a little bit further. Some of the oldest sequoias surpass 3000 years old. So just talking about not only the joy that it brings to people, but also the habitat and the space that it has for all of our wildlife as well. And then those Sequoia trees that have been along around for so long. And something else to mention is that we’ve seen what can happen to these magnificent trees when they aren’t protected. So Converse Basin is a really good example of that history of what logging giant Sequoias looks like. And it’s pretty sad to see some of those old stumps.
Missy Rentz:
Yeah, and I think one of the things I’ve mentioned in some previous episodes is that how impressed I am at the National Park Service and how they are willing to talk about the mistakes we’ve made in our past and how we’re humans and humans learn and evolve. And typically that the conversations have been around things like slavery or the way we remove people from their land. But in these parks it’s really about environmental conservation. Because when you talk about what you were talking about, just to see all of these stumps of these massive trees that, I don’t know, were they thousands of years old when they would’ve been cut down?
Holly:
Some of them likely were, like the Mark Twain stump is pretty big, so I’m guessing that one was a giant monarch and thousands of years old, which you know, is a long time to be around and then just taken down in a matter of days.
Missy Rentz:
Thank goodness that, people stepped in and said, this isn’t right. And that it was decided that they would protect it. And early on it wasn’t the National Park Service. It was the army that was protecting them. WII would love that. I would love it.
Holly:
Okay, great. So Buffalo Soldiers like their white counterparts in the US Army regiments were among the first park rangers. So in general they were back country rangers and in particular they patrolled parts of the west. So African American army regiments formed just after the Civil War were dispatched westward where the. Black soldiers fought in the Indian Wars and were eventually given the name Buffalo Soldiers by the Cheyenne and other Plains Indians. They saw a resemblance between their dark, curly hair and the matted cushion between the horns of the buffalo, and they were just fierce. So it was meant to be an honorable title. And as background, the army served as the official administrator of Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks between 1891 and 1913. So in that capacity they helped create a model for park management as we know it today. So these the Buffalo Soldiers Army troops were garrisoned at the Presidio of San Francisco during the winter months, and then they served in the Sierra during the summer months.
Missy Rentz:
Because I have heard, I feel like I’ve heard about Buffalo Soldiers in other places. So they didn’t just serve here. They were in other places as well.
Holly:
That’s right. Yep.
Missy Rentz:
Why’d they make the shift from the Army to the National Park? I.
Holly:
From the Army to the National Park, it was actually civilians started getting involved before World War I, but the big shift happened in World War I because the troops left and then civilian management took over. And then when the National Park Service was created, then we had National Park Service. So like the park is actually older than the National Park Service.
Missy Rentz:
One of the stories I love about the park and I don’t know why it hit me with this park. I know that there, there are so many people involved in the creation of parks and there was a woman named Susan th who was a park advocate, and this is like in the early 19 hundreds, a time where women were at home. They didn’t play major roles in things. She is credited for the expansion of the parks. Her story I found to be really amazing and I just would love it if you would share a little bit of who is Susan and what role did she have in the creation or expansion of these parks?
Holly:
Susan th is just incredible. Like you said, she’s credited for the expansion of the parks and it’s because of the work that she did in the Sierras. So Susan th came to this area with her husband and she just took a trip up to the giant Forest, was immediately just captivated by the Sequoias, and decided that she was going to be very active in helping with the ongoing efforts to. Preserve and protect some of the land out here. So she made, she acquainted herself with the superintendent who was John White at the time, and found out all of the efforts that they were doing to grow the parks to protect more natural resources. And so she on horseback, went out into the high Sierras. She was 40 years old. She went out into the high Sierras and photographed and mapped a lot of the areas that we now know as Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. And this wasn’t like a small effort, right? Like she’s out in really rugged terrain. She’s being very descriptive. And she created this little gazette that ended up being sent to Congress as they were trying to expand the borders of the parks. And because of the. Photography. The description, the work that she did on July 3rd, 1926, the parks expanded greatly and that included the Sierra Nevada Crest, Kern Canyon, Mount Whitney. All of those areas were credited to her. And then what’s also interesting is the method that she used to portray this beautiful nature to Congress and establish why it was so important is also how Ansel Adams helped establish other areas to be protected. And so it was this, it know, really effective tactics that she used.
Missy Rentz:
And maybe I’m more sensitive to it now because this is being recorded in April of 2025. And, there are so many people that talk about, what voice do we have? And this is just a prime example of how citizen, just a normal civilian citizen did something that made a massive difference in the park service. And I find it to be so beautiful if we just do what we’re passionate about and realize that gift can make a difference in this world.
Holly:
Yeah. Yeah, that’s a really great way to look at it.
Missy Rentz:
Okay, so up until this point we have the decision that we need to protect the Sequoias.
Holly:
This is a really long timeline for Sequoia and Kings Canyon. So I’m just gonna backtrack and talk about what we’ve talked about so far. Sequoia National Park was established in 1890. This is before the actual National Park Service was created. So it was being protected by the Army at this time. And it also, at that time, we had the General Grant National Park, which was a tiny little national park, established solely to protect the general grant tree, which is the second largest Sequoia. After that, the Buffalo Soldiers came in and did, made some significant contributions to Sequoia National Park, and that was in 1903. One of the significant contributions that we can see from the Buffalo Soldiers, or that the Buffalo Soldiers did was they created the first really accessible road to the giant forest. And that’s where a lot of our visitors still come today. So the Buffalo soldiers showed up. At the time Captain Young was in charge of overseeing the completion of the road to the Giant Forest, which was this old colony mill road. They completed that, which was really impressive work in the Sierras. And it extended up to Mor Rock. They also ended up making agreements with some of the landowners within the park so that eventually the National Park Service was able to acquire some private lands as well. And they set the tone for how national parks were managed, which was really amazing. So after the Buffalo Soldiers were here we talked about how. World War I was a turning point for when it, it was no longer the army that was guarding these parks. They had some civilian management and then the National Park Service was created in 1916. And so that’s when it got taken over by the National Park Service. And then Susan Thue comes in 1926. She assisted with that expansion of the parks for what we know today. And then it leads us to the contributions from the. Civilian Conservation Corps that we can see today, which is on the General’s Highway. So that old Colony Mill road, which used to be the entrance to Sequoia National Park that the Buffalo Soldiers built was the old road that people went on. Now, the General’s Highway is what the Civilian Conservation Corps worked on, and we can see a lot of their work with the stone work, the culverts. They also created some of the historic signs for the park and they did a lot of trail work. Just a ton of helping people access these beautiful spaces.
Missy Rentz:
So another superintendent of the park was Walter Fry. And I love learning about the creation of the park. And we talked about how the park is an example of humans evolving and their knowledge and their learning. And Walter had this same experience himself because his first experience with the Sequoias was cutting them down. How do you go from cutting them down to becoming the superintendent of the park?
Holly:
Walter Fry was another incredible advocate and protector of the giant sequoias. So we talked about, he came out here for work. He started with longing the sequoias, and immediately did not feel like that’s something that we should be doing. So he. Ended up signing a petition in 1890, which Stablish was when Sequoia National Park was established. And then he started doing some road construction and ended up becoming a civilian park ranger in 1905. He ended up being the Chief Park Ranger in 1912 and acted as superintendent during the winter months. So once the Army exited the management that we talked about with the Buffalo soldiers and then the Army Corps Walter Fry then was appointed the superintendent of Sequoia and General Grant National Parks for six years and after, and then John White became the superintendent after that. He was still so active in the parks. He ended up being the first Nature guide service at Sequoia. He led Nature Walks. He wrote Nature Bulletins and he organized the first public museum in Sequoia National Park, which was just a tent. But he also spoke at campfire programs and those are things that we still do today, right? Those are things that the park Rangers still feel enhances the visitor experience when they’re coming to the parks. And so it really laid the foundation for a lot of the things that we are still doing today.
Missy Rentz:
I a story I read and, I don’t maybe you can or can’t validate that it’s true, but a story I read was that he cut a tree and then counted the rings, and that tree would’ve been 3,266 years old. And that was one of the points where he was like, I can’t do this. And I think that’s really powerful. And to see what he then turned around and did, advocating for this park and helping people appreciate what, where they were standing, and what they were experiencing is pretty beautiful.
Holly:
Yeah, I agree. I think I, I have heard that story as well, and I can just imagine being in that moment and having that sense of clarity about your personal values around nature conservation.
Missy Rentz:
Yeah. So we talk about the trees, we’re talking about these sequoias, and I think when most people hear Sequoia and King Canyon, that’s what they think about are the trees. And maybe I should have started with this, but I’m gonna say, what is a Sequoia and
Holly:
Oh yeah. Okay. Sequoias are so incredible. So first of all, I’m just gonna paint a visual picture for anyone who hasn’t seen a Sequoia before. Sequoias basically look like. You can exactly imagine a dinosaur walking through these giant Sequoia groves. They are humongous. So they’re just these big, beautiful trees. They have this cinnamon colored bark, and it looks like fuzzy. The bark on a sequoia tree is adapted to be in a wildfire environment. So the bark itself is spongy and it has a lot of air pockets in it so that when fire comes through the tree is protected. So it continues to grow outward. So we’ve got this big, we’ve got this beautiful cinnamon colored bark, and then the canopy is just hundreds of feet into the sky. And also sequoias are really cool in the groves you can see like baby sequoias, middle aged sequoias, and then these giant monarch sequoias. And so you can see like how they’re different. And the ones that have been around forever are just magnificent. They have these tiny little cones that have like hundreds of little oatmeal sized seeds inside of them that the Sequoia trees actually hold onto until the conditions are right to pollinate the seeds and distribute them on the ground. And so there’s a lot of really cool, I guess interaction with wildfire and how Sequoias actually really thrive in a fire environment. And they’re really just incredible. They’re in a mixed conifer forest, so there’s other giant trees around them, so it’s really hard to gauge the size of things because the giant sequoias are so giant, but they’re also around a lot of other really big trees. So you’re just this, visitor in this giant space. That’s why, it’s called the giant forest.
Missy Rentz:
You could certainly look on the website, the National Park Service website, but I’m also gonna have a lot of pictures of my visit to Sequoia for people to see you bring up the fires. And obviously, we hear a ton about fires around the country and it’s super scary. But then you also talk about the way sequoia’s handle fires. You all had a large fire last year and I think it closed the park for a while. What does a fire do? It’s still devastating, correct.
Holly:
Yeah, so it really depends on the fire. And I think the fire that maybe most people are familiar with is the KMP complex. And that fire was in 2021. It was a massive fire a high intensity fire. It spread through so much of the park and it did cause a lot of devastation. We lost a lot of sequoias during that fire and it was a pretty scary time. That fire was, I will say, a pretty scary fire. But there are other fires that are very beneficial to Sequoias, so it’s complicated. But Sequoias really do need a fire because it’s a natural occurrence. So maybe people who aren’t from. This area like myself, before I came out to this park, I didn’t realize that wildfire in this area is a natural occurrence. It’s got like a, between a 10 and 15 year interval when you expect fire to happen again, and it clears the ground. The, how it impacts sequoias is the fire comes through normally it clears the ground. It’s a little bit, it’s supposed to be a little bit lower intensity. So all of the duff and like the, little smaller plants get burned up and it clears the way for the Sequoia trees to then release their seeds. Sequoias need a ton of space. They need those nutrients in the ground to actually grow and survive. And so it is part of their natural ecosystem and what’s been happening. In previous fires is we did a lot of fire suppression as a whole in the past, and so a lot of those fuels didn’t get naturally burned. And so that’s why we’re seeing these bigger fires that are spreading more rapidly, especially during drier summers. When everything is really dried up and the fire can spread through ladder fuels there’s a lot going on there and it’s complicated and, we’ve got a lot of people who are studying this and trying to make the best decisions to help protect these spaces.
Missy Rentz:
Yeah. And while the trees are certainly the star, the park has a lot of other things to explore too. Can you tell me a little bit about the conservation efforts in the park?
Holly:
This is a great question and one that really speaks to the National Park Service and its mission to preserve unimpaired, the natural and cultural resources and values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations. So Sequoia and Kings Canyon are incredibly special. Their boundaries hold over 850,000 acres of protected land. We have two very prominent dis designated wilderness areas which would be the Sequoia Kings Wilderness and the John Krebs wilderness and these areas. We’re established by Congress and managed according to the Wilderness Act as federal law. So aside from that, the Park Service also employs scientists who study the flora and fauna of our parks, taking care of to understand human impacts, identify species that might be facing challenges like our bighorn sheep which are federally endangered, the Pacific fisher, the mountain yellow legged frogs, and the white bark pine and meadow restoration is another interesting area of work for our parks.
Missy Rentz:
Meadow Restoration I think it was Herbert Hoover that did some stuff, and that’s one of those things that I was completely ignorant to. And I just looked at it and thought, oh, it’s a meadow. It’s just there. But there’s a lot of benefit from a meadow and I didn’t realize that. I love to hear that you guys are doing that too.
Holly:
Yeah, and this is actually an interesting way to tie, tie this back to the stor the conversation we were having earlier is one of the great contributions of the Buffalo soldiers was protecting the land from grazing. And so Meadows were, impacted significantly from cattle grazing. And so they really protected a lot of these areas just from that. And the Meadows are a delicate system and they are important and they, I don’t a lot of people, love to see Crescent Meadow. I think that’s a really beautiful meadow that people can access pretty easily to see exactly like how wonderful a meadow space is. And a lot of times people are able to see bears in the meadow too. It’s a place for wildlife to really enjoy.
Missy Rentz:
Oh, that’s so cool. I’m gonna have to come back’cause I did not go see that. I’m gonna have to come
Holly:
Yeah,
Missy Rentz:
Okay. We, let’s talk about planning a trip to the park. This is one of those parks where I needed to do a lot of planning and research before I visited because it’s big and it’s spread out and there’s so much to see.
Holly:
yeah.
Missy Rentz:
How do you even, I guess the first is how do you even get to the park because it’s not near much
Holly:
Yeah. So it is a little, Out in wilderness, but people can get to Sequoia Kings Canyon. It’s about an hour, just over an hour east of Fresno, California to get into Kings Canyon or about an hour and 15 minutes from Visalia. And the entrance to Sequoia is about 45 minutes east of Visalia. So Fresno is the nearest airport for people trying to fly in.
Missy Rentz:
and what’s the best time of year to visit?
Holly:
Oh my gosh. Okay. So I get this question a lot and it’s hard to answer because the parks are so beautiful throughout each season. So it really depends on the type of experience that people are looking for. Typically, our visitation is highest from May to September, and that’s also when most of our seasonal areas are accessible. Like Cedar Grove and Mineral King areas don’t open until, later in this, they’re closed for a significant part of the winter season because the roads aren’t maintained. And so a lot of people come. During that time also because kids are out of school. But also if you wanna come, enjoy the parks with less congestion. Springtime is really beautiful. Down here in the foothills are only green for a couple of months out of the year. The rest of the time they’re that gold. They, the Golden Hills because everything’s dried out. So that’s a time I would recommend. The wild flowers are amazing. And then fall is really beautiful to see as well. The thing that I would encourage people to consider when they’re planning their trip is really, if they are gonna drive up in the winter, that is a challenging time because the weather is so unpredictable. We do have chain restrictions in accordance with California state law. And so there are times when people will have to use tire chains or the road can be closed to access the giant forest in the winter, which is a very beautiful time to see those magnificent sequoias. But it is, you also need to be unfamiliar with tire chains and driving in mountain roads when they can be a little slippery.
Missy Rentz:
I came at that cusp of winter to spring, and my decision was because I just prefer parks without large crowds and this is a park that gets large crowds And there isn’t really a lot that’s near as we talked about, where can people stay when they visit?
Holly:
So we do have some lodges in the park that are really lovely. We have the John Muir Lodge in Grant Grove. There’s a lodge in Cedar Grove. The W Lodge is in a lodge pool. And then we also offer some campgrounds. We have 15 campgrounds in the parks, but not all of them are open at any given time, so people can check out our campgrounds on recreation.gov for availability. And that’s also where our reservation system is. So we don’t have. In general, we don’t have a walkup first come, first cur serve situation. So recreation.gov is the best way to see what campgrounds are around and to see what’s available.
Missy Rentz:
And I found that, there are some parks that are more remote that have very robust resources within the park, and you guys are a park that has like the camp store and has, Stratton. So everything you need once you get in the park is in the park.
Holly:
Yeah, we do have the camp store, we’ve got restaurants other things that are. Helpful. The lodgepole market is really expensive, so that’s a really nice place if you forget something. Or if you’re camping. Our lodgepole campground is pretty big that serves a lot of people and has a pretty good variety. There’s also a grill there and the W Lodge has a grill too, so you can definitely get some food and anything that you might have forgotten, but people should be prepared with gas in their vehicle. We don’t have any gas stations in the park there. Sometimes there’s, okay, so also between Sequoia and Kings Canyon, there’s a section of the General’s Highway that goes through the National Forest, which is a little bit different than the National Park. And there is a gas station that is sometimes open there.
Missy Rentz:
The, I think the key there is sometimes
Holly:
that’s right. Yeah. I really I’m like, we do have all these amazing things, but also come prepared.
Missy Rentz:
I know, fill your take before you leave. Okay. Let’s talk about what there is to do. It’s endless. So I think we’re gonna be able to just touch on the top things that we like. But let’s talk about what there is to do when you’re at the park.
Holly:
sure.
Missy Rentz:
I’m a big fan of the hiking.
Holly:
yeah. Okay. Me too. I’m a big hiker there, but you’re right, there are a lot of things to do. Hiking is probably something that comes to mind for a lot of visitors. And then just the distance of the hike is a personal preference, right? So whatever your ability is in hiking is really how you wanna plan your trip. And some common. Hikes that people go on is, so people definitely come to see the general Sherman tree, which is the largest tree in the world. And that’s also connected to the Congress trail, which is a two mile loop that you can go on after you see the Sherman tree, before you see the Sherman tree. And that’s a great way to see some of the named trees. Some of the really cool Sequoia groups, so like Sequoias can be sequoias grow really cool. They can either be like individual sequoia’s, big, giant, individual trees that grew in the perfect space. Like the general Sherman is so big because. Of the area that it grew in. It’s got all the space, the access to the sun and like water resources. But some of them grow in like clusters or groups. And so those are really neat to be in. And then sometimes Sequoia trees grow into each other and so it’s two sequoias in one. So if you go on the congress trail, you can see a variety of Sequoia trees and how they grow.
Missy Rentz:
On the Congress show. I just wanna take a pause for a second because this is the, this is a spot that has great accessibility.
Holly:
Yes. Yeah. It is accessible, like the general Sherman tree trail is paved. So that is, a little bit more accessible. And there’s also a Sequoia shuttle that can help people get to the Sherman tree. And there’s an accessible parking lot specifically designated to accessible parking during the summer months. And so that makes it a little bit easier to get on that paved trail and have, because if you’re not parking in the accessible parking, then you would park in the upper Sherman lot, and it’s about a half mile trail, but it is pretty steep. So it’s paved but steep.
Missy Rentz:
yeah. And I, and even that paved trail that we’re talking about down to be able to see the tree and it takes you, it’s not like just down to see the tree and back. It’s this great loop that takes you through lots of trees, but it’s still steep. It’s got stairs. It also has, if my memory serves me, some benches to rest,
Holly:
that’s right.
Missy Rentz:
but it’s, yeah. But I just think that I think some people avoid parks thinking they can’t do it. Their abilities don’t allow them. And I think that you all have done an amazing job at making the big the big moments in the park accessible for everybody.
Holly:
Yes. And you know what, I do wanna tell people that another really great accessible trail in the Giant Forest is the big Trees Trail, and that’s around Round Meadow. Tying it back to our history, that’s where the Buffalo Soldiers had their kind of end of season meal on a sugar pine tree. It’s a really cute story, but that’s a really lovely place to see some giant sequoias that’s accessible and it’s a short little hike around the round meadow.
Missy Rentz:
Yeah. So you can go, no matter your ability, you can enjoy this park.
Holly:
Yes. And we do have a page on our website that points out all of the really accessible areas within the park.
Missy Rentz:
And the other thing I learned, just to stick on hiking for a second, I learned a lot about myself and while I was in this park, but one thing I learned is that. You can take just a bunch of short hikes. I don’t know why. In my head, mentally I was thinking, oh, in order to do a hike, I have to go out and do a four or six mile hike. But here there’s so much to see where you’re just doing like a two mile loop or a mile out and back, and I think that’s so great about this park is there’s so much to see, but you’re not hiking 10 miles to get to what there is to see.
Holly:
Yeah, that is a really great way to explain it. And also something that I like to tell people is. You can choose your own, like just pay attention to your body and what it feels like. So you can, if you’re like, oh, I don’t know what I can do, turn around. You don’t have to do the whole thing. You can do whatever amount you wanna do. That’s the whole beauty of being in parks is you really choose your own adventure and you choose how much you feel like you can do. And I think it’s, you’re right, it is just, it’s nice that it’s accessible to a lot of people. I think Crescent Meadow is another great place where you can just walk, however, there’s a parking lot right there. So you can park and then just walk however long you feel comfortable walking. Okay.
Missy Rentz:
Now, I didn’t see horseback riding while I was there, but that’s something that can be done. As well as like some fishing. Yes.
Holly:
So there is some horseback riding that is through a concessionaire service. And so some of those trips that you would make a reservation for online, and I think they have.
Missy Rentz:
Do you know if you have to get like a permit or a fishing license through the state in order to do that?
Holly:
Yes, you do need a fishing license. And a lot of people go down to Cedar Grove for fishing, actually is a great fishing spot.
Missy Rentz:
One that you touched on this, but one thing I wanna talk about in planning a trip to the park is the weather because it can change on a dime
Holly:
Yeah. That’s right.
Missy Rentz:
everything.
Holly:
It, yes, absolutely. Okay. So the weather, it can vary greatly, and that’s because of the amazing elevation range that is within these parks. We already talked about the highest elevation. The lowest elevation, but really a lot of people, what they’re experiencing is elevation from that 1400 feet to about 6,000, between six and 7,000 feet. That’s what people generally experience when they’re going to like the giant forest or grant grove. And so it can be like 10 to 20 degrees cooler up in the forest than it is down in the foothills, which is a big benefit in the summer. That’s why a lot of people go up to the forest because it’s just that cooler weather. But I bring a ton of layers. You being prepared is very important. Checking the weather. We do get a lot of questions about. Especially this time of the year oh, we’re planning to come out. What is the weather gonna look like? It’s the Sierras, it can be really last minute changes and winter lasts a little bit longer up in elevation than it does down in the Foothill. So we do have forecasts for each area of the park that people can look at on our website to help plan for that.
Missy Rentz:
that’s great. I think I would answer it with something like, we’re expecting snow and 80 and
Holly:
Yeah, exactly.
Missy Rentz:
The other thing just, I, safety is something I always try to talk about in this park. There’s not a lot of cell service. And I know I had, I was, traveling alone. And so I had my buddy was my brother, and anytime I would do a trail, I would, we had this deal where, I had a Garmin watch, but I also would text him what my trail plan was before I would go out. When I was visiting there, nothing was open. So if any lodges or anything had wifi, they wouldn’t have been open for me anyway. But I would drive like almost sometimes an hour away to get a cell signal, to be able to text, here’s my plan, and then come back in, do the trip, and then go back out and say I’m off the trail. And so just, I think it is limited, it makes it even more enjoyable because you have to be so present. But I think it’s important for people to understand what they’re going into.
Holly:
Yeah, that’s a really good point. And, before I was the public affairs specialist, I was actually a park dispatcher, and so I answered calls for emergency services. And people can often be afraid if they don’t hear from someone who’s been in the parks. And it does take a lot, sometimes, first of all, people stay on trails a lot longer than they expect because they’re so beautiful and you’re just having such a great time. But then it, you do have to drive quite a ways. It’s just a couple of miles into the park when you lose cell phone service. And it depends on what carrier you have. So I know that cell phone service has gotten a little bit better in some of those populated areas like Lodgepole and Grant Grove, depending on your provider. But people should come prepared to not have a connection.
Missy Rentz:
Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. I do wanna talk a little bit about the scenic overlooks, and this, what I wanna ask you about is not a scenic overlook, but it’s the iconic, I don’t even know what it’s called, but it’s the iconic picture where you see people driving through slash under a tree.
Holly:
Oh yeah. Okay. You’re talking about tunnel log, so that, yes, that is something that people can see on their way to Crescent Meadow. There’s a little drive through. A lot of people like to stop and get a photo of their car underneath tunnel log. And so it can get a little congested there. And those roads are tiny. So be prepared also to wait for your photo, if that’s what you’re there for.
Missy Rentz:
These two parks are, are parks that have iconic moments or iconic, places where people can, it’s like the Instagrammable moment.’cause you’ve got the tunnel and you’ve got, there’s, I have pictures where I’m standing like inside of a tree. And it’s just so many great spots like that. And you also do have amazing scenic overlooks.
Holly:
Oh my gosh. Yes. Okay, so this is another choose your own adventure, where I will talk about my favorite photo esque places. So there’s definitely all okay. People come in through the park and one place that they like to stop is also the tunnel rock, so different than the tunnel log. So the tunnel rock used to be where the General’s Highway went underneath a rock. And so that’s one of the first places where people stop and there’s a parking area and you can stand underneath this giant rock formation. And then there is, there are a ton of scenic overlooks on the way up the General’s Highway. It was very specifically designed to be a scenic route. So people can stop along the way and get some really great photos of just the foothills, you can see so much on a clear day. You can see from like Morrow Rock, the the coastal mountain range as well. If it’s a super clear day, which is crazy, that’s a couple of hours away, but you’re so high up, you can see that. And like the Western divide. So Morrow Rock is another great place. That one’s a very steep trail. So it depends on your ability and also if you’re scared of heights because it’s pretty exposed. And then like you said, tunnel log is a great one. Of course General Sherman getting a photo with General Sherman and General Grant is a to-do list, but one of the really epic places if you’re a little bit, more experience in hiking and you wanna do something a little bit more strenuous is there is a lakes trail that goes there’s two different routes. So the watchtower is if you go left or if you go straight, then you go over the hump, right? And these are going out to some really beautiful alpine lakes pear Lake specifically, which is a great, like way to see an alpine lake on a day hike. Like you can get there in one day, which is incredible. But the Watchtower has this incredible view. It’s this beautiful o open view of the canyon not the king’s canyon. It’s where I think it’s the, one of the forks of the runs through, but it’s so deep, very steep, and it’s just, you can see forever and you can really see a bunch of the geology and like the glacial formations, which is, or the glacial impacts to the rock formations, which is really cool.
Missy Rentz:
Oh, that’s so cool. I love it. Okay, so just so everybody knows, if you go to the Parks podcast website and look on this episode page, I’m gonna put links to everything that has been mentioned here, because it will be a good resource for you as you start your planning to visit Sequoia in Kings Canyon. Holly, one of the things we do at the end of every episode is we do a speed round of questions where you just answer with whatever first comes to mind. What is your earliest park memory?
Holly:
Okay. So my earliest park memory is actually here at Sequoia Kings Canyon. I had not gone to a national park until I was in my thirties, and I went on a backpacking trip out of Lodgepole, up to Ranger Lake and around through Jail Pass. And that was really a life-changing moment for me. I moved out here within two years because it had such a significant impact on me.
Missy Rentz:
What made you love the parks?
Holly:
I really love the solitude of the parks. It’s a good test of your body and your spirit and the curiosity of nature. For me, it inspires just a ton of curiosity. I’m still curious. There’s so much to learn about these wild and diverse ecosystems, and the intention of being in nature is really just a gift to yourself in a modern age of fast-paced lifestyles and constant screen time.
Missy Rentz:
What is your favorite thing about Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks?
Holly:
Oh, definitely diversity of the Ecosystems
Missy Rentz:
What’s your favorite thing to do at Sequoia in Kings Canyon National Parks?
Holly:
Explore. I love hiking everywhere and learning.
Missy Rentz:
What park have you yet to visit, but it’s on your bucket list and why?
Holly:
Any of the Alaska National Parks, I haven’t been there. I really just wanna experience that huge wild nature,
Missy Rentz:
What are three must haves? You pack for a park visit. What
Holly:
all of the safety stuff. So food, water, sun protection, map for aid kit, and then layers with that weather that we talked about. I need to be comfortable. Personally, I am a layering person. And binoculars, I really love looking at wildlife,
Missy Rentz:
is your favorite campfire activity?
Holly:
s’mores and stories
Missy Rentz:
And are you a tent, camper, or cabin person?
Holly:
primarily tent.
Missy Rentz:
Do you hike with or without trekking poles?
Holly:
I always have one attached to my pack.
Missy Rentz:
What is your favorite trail snack
Holly:
Fresh fruit.
Missy Rentz:
and what is your favorite or best animal sighting?
Holly:
Oh my gosh. I, like I said, I love wildlife sightings, so any sighting that is at a safe distance.
Missy Rentz:
What is your favorite sound in the park?
Holly:
Okay. I would say a running stream, but also bird song, they’re equally tied.
Missy Rentz:
And what is the greatest gift you think that parks give to us?
Holly:
Definitely that connection to ourselves and the connection to nature.
Missy Rentz:
Holly, I am so grateful to you for coming on and sharing stories of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. It is, they both are such beautiful spaces and I think the world should know about them and go see them.
Holly:
Thank you for having me, Missy. This has been really amazing. I love telling people about the parks, and I hope everybody comes to visit.
Missy Rentz:
That’s it for today’s episode. Until next time, we’ll see you in the parks.
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please be sure to like and share on your favorite podcast platform. Music for the parks podcast is performed and produced by Porter Hardy. For more information, please follow us on Instagram at the parks podcast. Or visit our website@theparkspodcast.com.