A group of friends and I are all planning a trip for mid-May to see King's Canyon and Sequoia for the first time. We've done some research and we're trying to find some good places to camp (car camp - one of our friends just tore his MCL) that are accessible to beautiful and less populated parts of the parks. We found information on Potwisha and Buckeye Flats campgrounds and they sound like they're smaller than the big RV camps. Does anybody have any recommendations or suggestions?
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SF Bay Area
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Re: King's Canyon and Sequoia??
Fri, May 11, 2007 - 3:03 PMI've tent-camped in Buckeye. My recollection was it was of a really narrow windy turn to get into it (and I was driving a small car), but that overall it was fine. I'd stay there again. I was there in July, and it wasn't full. (It may have been mid-week, though, I can't remember.) However, I remember a lot of driving to get to the other spots I wanted to go to, but I think that's just the nature of car camping in those two parks. (they now have some shuttles, I guess!)
There were bear warnings all over, but I felt very safe b/c the people across from me left a ton of food in the back of their pickup, so I knew the bears, if wandering by, would go hang out with them and not me :-) My other recollection is that they got a ticket from the rangers for their failure to follow campground rules on food storage. The camp ground hosts came around to introduce themselves, too, and inspected the site and my car to see if I was complying with bear-related guidelines.
Whatever you do, go on the crystal cave tour. Buy tickets ahead, it's worth it. The tour guide when I went was a cave fanatic, and it's not a little cave -- it's a huge system of caves, with some amazing features. -
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Re: King's Canyon and Sequoia??
Fri, May 11, 2007 - 5:49 PMcool we are going the end of the month!!! -
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Re: King's Canyon and Sequoia??
Mon, June 4, 2007 - 2:00 AMwe just got back from sequoia I liked sequoia better than kings but we explored sequoia for more in the time we were there. We stayed at lodge pole which was along the river very nice . Our spot was one of the suckier ones but the others were more wooded or along the river. there was a great hike to the falls from there and the shuttle runs to that campground and visitors center and takes you to moro rock awesome! and general sherman worlds largest tree and giant tree museum so that saves you on gas b/c gas in the national forest and I had to pony up and get some b/c I was afraid of getting too low was a whopping 3.76 a gallon there is no gas in the national park section . there is no shuttle to crystal cave. I think the one thing I loved about this park is that is not your drive thru type park there is hiking to do to see things. The girls and I hiked to the falls at the end of our campground 3.4 miles my girls first real hiking experience and we saw a BEAR! YUP a real live bear on the other side of the river foraging. I was like a kid at christmas !
Crystal cave was pretty cool you buy tickets and drive there and then hike to the cave entrance and there are 3 different rooms and the guide was very knowledgeable I am claustrophobic to a degree and I did fine. I was actually more freaked about the heights of moro rock we climbed to . it was an excellent trip but I could have easily used another 2 days to see more
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Re: King's Canyon and Sequoia??
Tue, July 10, 2007 - 3:50 PMMY favorite area to camp is in between the 2 National Parks, on BIG MEADOW ROAD, way way past Big Meadows campground. This is a paved 12 mile road that is located inside Sequoia National Forest, on the border of Jennie Lake Wilderness & Monarch Wilderness. You can get a passenger car out to HORSE MEADOW & have a secluded spot all to yourself, for free. And still be within driving distance from both KINGS CYN & Sequoia Groves. Tons of great tips like this can be found on Total Escape, my decade old web log of all my camping excursions. Check it out soon. www.totalescape.com/active/c...html#prim
DanaMite
Total Escape - California, Off the Beaten Path
10 years Online! ~ www.totalescape.com
Defining your Direction ~ www.totalescape.net
