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Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks
In central California, stretching northward from 35 miles east of Visalia to 55 miles east of Fresno, and from the foothills of the San Joaquin Valley to the crest of the High Sierras, the two parks abut and are managed together. Sequoia is the second-oldest national park, behind Yellowstone National Park.
One way to turn back the clock 3,000 years is to take a trip through Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. The landscape is studded with the largest of trees, the giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum). Many of the trees are more than 200 feet high and some have trunks more than 30 feet in diameter. Mount Whitney, at 14,494 feet the highest point in the contiguous United States, is on the eastern edge of Sequoia National Park.
Although the sequoias sparked the formation of these parks, magnificent forests of sugar and ponderosa pine, white and red fir and incense-cedar also exist here. Sugar pines have been known to grow to a base diameter of 11 feet.
Its variable climate has endowed this region with a significant variety of plants. About 1,530 species of trees, shrubs, plants and flowers have been identified, including 22 deciduous tree and 26 evergreen tree species.
Mule deer, marmots, chipmunks and squirrels are common. Because American black bears frequently are seen in campgrounds, proper food storage is strictly enforced. Raccoons, gray foxes and bobcats can be seen occasionally at night. Rarely seen, however, are Sierra bighorns, mountain lions, pine martens and fishers. About 207 species of birds, including the golden eagle, have been spotted, and the streams along with some high-country lakes support rainbow, brook, brown and golden trout.
Only trails penetrate the alpine wilderness of both parks; therefore, the beauties of the High Sierra or backcountry are available only to hikers and horseback riders. Park trails are off-limits to bicyclists.
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