Leading up to Sequoia I had initially low expectations since the other national park we would be visiting would be Yosemite, but Sequoia was surprisingly pleasant. We looped around the Big Trees Trail and Congress Trail, getting to see General Sherman and the huge footprint it has. In the middle of the boardwalk portion of the trail, there was a young black bear that the rangers ultimately chased into the woods, but before that we had great photo options.
The first day driving into Sequoia was full of switchbacks and hairpin turns leaving Sara slightly sick in the back, so the second day we decided to take an alternate entrance which was "recommended" by Google to bypass those roads. Perfect! Only it turns out, the last few miles of that paved road become more of a sandy logging road that put a hurting on our rental car. It ended up being fine, but trying to get into the park from an unposted entrance will not necessarily be at the top of the list in the future, but it worked.
We did the short north grant trail to General Grant and then hiked Big Baldy that provided some pretty great panoramic overlooks from the trail.
Our AirBnB in Fresno turned out to be a great little gem, and was close to Que Pass where we crushed a few margs watching the Copa Cup getting our soccer fix before the Olympics. We only had one night here since we'd be moving on to Mariposa for the duration of our time in Yosemite.
