What to See in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks - Top Sights and Attractions

Sequoia National Park’s main attraction. General Sherman is a giant sequoia tree located in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park in Tulare County, in the U.S. state of California. By volume, it is the largest known living single-stem tree on Earth. It is estimated to be around 2,200 to 2,700 years old.

While the General Sherman is the largest currently living tree, it is not the largest historically recorded tree. The Lindsey Creek tree, with more than 90,000 cubic feet (2,500 cubic meters) almost twice the volume of General Sherman, was reported felled by a storm in 1905. Another larger coast redwood, the Crannell Creek Giant, a coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) cut down in the mid-1940s near Trinidad, California, is estimated to have been 15–25% larger than the General Sherman tree by volume.^[1]

Village in California. The Giant Forest Village–Camp Kaweah Historic District is located in Sequoia National Park. It is notable as one of two registered historic districts in the park that were largely demolished as part of National Park Service efforts to mitigate the impact of park visitor facilities on the park's giant sequoia groves. They were in a vernacular National Park Service Rustic and American Craftsman Bungalow style.

Established in 1926 as a satellite facility for the main Giant Forest Lodge development, Camp Kaweah and Giant Forest Village provided lodging, concessions and camping for visitors to the Giant Forest grove. The construction of the Generals Highway gave impetus to new accommodations in the area. By 2001 the housekeeping camp facilities had been removed and the area converted to a day-use are.^[2]

Mountain. Needham Mountain is a mountain summit of the Sierra Nevada, located in Tulare County, California. It is located in the southern Sierra Nevada, in the central part of Sequoia National Park. Needham Mountain is 6 mi miles east of Mineral King, 5.6 mi northeast of Mount Kaweah, and 17 mi southwest of the highest peak in the state, Mount Whitney. With an altitude of 12,536 ft, Needham Mountain is the twentieth-highest mountain in California with a prominence of 1,880 ft. The mountain is named after an American congressman who represented California at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, James C. Needham. The first ascent of the summit was made in July 1916, by M. R. Parsons, Agnes Vaile, H. B. Graham, and Edmund Chamberlain.^[10]

Mountain in California. Eagle Scout Peak is a 12,005-foot mountain on the Great Western Divide of the southern Sierra Nevada. The mountain is located in the backcountry of Sequoia National Park. The mountain sits immediately to the south of Kaweah Gap along the main crest of the Great Western Divide. The east face of Eagle Scout Peak is relatively gentle and offers the easiest routes to the summit. The north face drops 1,600 feet to Precipice Lake in a series of sheer cliffs. This scene was the backdrop for the Ansel Adams photo "Frozen Lake and Cliffs".

The main route to the summit is a YDS Class 2 scramble up the east face from the Big Arroyo. Two technical climbing routes exist on the steep north face: "Dancing Deer Direct" and "North Face". Both these routes have YDS Class 5.7 difficulty. On July 15, 1926 Francis Farquhar and three Eagle Scouts (Frederick Armstrong, Eugene Howell, and Coe Swift) made the first recorded ascent of Eagle Scout Peak, hence its name.

Eagle Scout Peak does not have particularly high topographic prominence due to a high-elevation ridge connecting it to several higher peaks to the south. However, the sheer vertical drop on the north face makes the mountain visually prominent. Its position along the ridge of the Great Western Divide endows the mountain with panoramic views in all directions. Eagle Scout Peak is featured on the peak list maintained by the Sierra Peaks Section.^[11]

Midway Mountain is a remote 13,665-foot-elevation mountain summit located on the Great Western Divide of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, in Tulare County of northern California. It is set on the common boundary that Kings Canyon National Park shares with Sequoia National Park, and is situated 0.6 mile southwest of Table Mountain, and 0.6 mile north of Milestone Mountain. Midway Mountain ranks as the 39th-highest summit in California, and the highest point on the central Great Western Divide. It would be the highest of the entire Great Western Divide if the Kaweah Peaks were excluded. Topographic relief is significant as the west aspect rises over 4,800 feet above Cloud Canyon in three miles, and the east aspect rises over 3,800 feet above the Kern River in three miles.^[13]

Mountain in California. Alta Peak is in Sequoia National Park not far from Giant Forest. Before 1896, the mountain was known as Tharps Peak. By 1903 it was generally known by its current name and Alta Peak appears on the Tehipite quadrangle, USGS 30 minute topographic map of 1905, and was officially recognized by the Board on Geographic Names in 1928. The Sierra Club Bulletin noted that the name Alta Peak was "euphonious". A meadow on its southern slope had long been known as Alta Meadow. A rocky outcrop, 0.5 miles southwest of the summit, is now known as Tharps Rock. Hale Tharp was the first euro-American to explore the Giant Forest area. His summer camp, a hollowed out Sequoia log near Crescent Meadow known as Tharp's Log, is popular with park visitors.^[15]