Sequoia National Park 24 Hour Travel Guide

If you ever want to be in awe of nature then I highly recommend visiting Sequoia National Park. California holds the title of having the most national parks in the United States, and Sequoia is probably one of the most famous ones of all. I’m sure we all have seen pictures of cars going through a tree trunk tunnel. Even with the expectation of Sequoia trees being massive, I was still amazed by how huge they were. Although the Redwood Forest has the tallest trees, Sequoia Giant Trees are the largest in volume. But trees are not the only thing to see.

Danni and I have been trying to camp at  Sequoia National Park for a while, but camping sites fill up pretty quickly. The tip is to book in February when they open up. You can take a chance and drive up to a none reservation campsite. With this trip planned since winter, we hadn’t realized we had booked it on Father’s Day weekend. Rather than giving up our reservation, we decided to do a quick 24-hour turn around camping trip.

Here is a 24 hours travel guide to the Sequoia National Park.

Sequoia makes it really easy for visitors to get around the park. It can even be a day trip if you don’t mind the drive. They have shuttles to take you from place to place. 

DAY 1

First Stop is the Morro Rock. This hike can get pretty crowded, so if you are starting your day early then I would recommend stopping here first. That way you can enjoy the hike and the view on top without people photo-bombing your selfie. 

Then stop by the Sequoia Tunnel Log to take a few Instagram photos. From there you can take a small hike (.25 miles) to Crescent Meadow. This is one of the larger meadows in the Giant Forest and where many hikes stem from. 

At this point, you might be tired (especially waiting in shuttle lines), so it is a good time to head back to camp. We stayed at Lodgepole Area Campgrounds, which is one of the larger campsites in Sequoia. We got lucky because we got a campsite near the river. Danni and I don’t like to bring too many things when we go camping so that unpacking and setting up doesn’t take too long. For dinner, we made a quick meal of chicken sausages and veggie skewers. Then the best part of the night came when you sit around the campfire and have some good laughs. 

DAY 2

Typically we make s’mores at night, but I wasn’t feeling too well at night, so we went to bed early. But s’mores make a perfect breakfast choice. The Lodgepole campgrounds have a cafe, where we had our official breakfast and coffee.

With only a few more hours left before we needed to head back home, we took a drive to the Sherman Tree Trail. The General Sherman Tree is the oldest tree in the park, at 3,000 years old. It is a sight to see. Just like Cinderella, it was time to go home.