Sequoia National Park

We set up in Visalia, an agricultural town in the San Joaquin Valley just west of Sequoia NP. On the way in we saw acres of corn, sugar cane, citrus fruits and huge and odiferous dairey farms. Once again, it's back into the Sierra Nevada Range which runs from north of Tahoe south about 400 miles to just north of Bakersfield and ranges from 40 to 60 miles wide. Mt. Whitney, the highest spot in the continental US is on the eastern border of the park. No east-west roads traverse it between the southern border and the northern road in Yosemite.
The road into Sequoia, like those into many of the parks, is a great ride. Road construction held us up a little, but we forged ahead to the General Sherman Tree, the largest known tree on earth. It's about 2,200 years old, 275 feet tall and 36.5 feet in diameter. The lowest limp is 130' up, and at 180' up the diameter is 14.5'. Experts believe that the grove where the tree lives offers optimal growing conditions for these trees. Annual growth is enough to grow an east coast tree of about 75', but since the top is dead, all growth is outward or in branches. The largest branch is 6' in diameter. It's quite a site.
On the way home we encountered a construction stop which they said would be a minimum of an hour. It was already 6:15pm, so I decided to turn around and us a different exit. It was 9:00 before we made it home.