Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

Sequoia and Kings Canyon are two national parks on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada in California, run by the Park Service as one unit since 1943. Together they cover 865,964 acres, from 1,300 feet in the foothills to the 14,494-foot summit of Mount Whitney. They hold about a third of all naturally occurring giant sequoias. In 2025 Sequoia had 1,378,337 recreation visits and Kings Canyon 779,791.

Most of what a first visit covers lies along one road, the Generals Highway, which climbs from the foothills to the sequoia groves. Every figure here is from the Park Service's own pages and its fall 2026 trip planner, checked on 26 October 2026.

How do Sequoia and Kings Canyon fit together?

Sequoia and Kings Canyon fit together as one park in practice: one entrance pass covers both, and the Generals Highway joins them through a stretch of national forest. Each park has its own areas.

• Sequoia National Park: the Foothills, Giant Forest with the General Sherman Tree and Moro Rock, Lodgepole, Wuksachi and, at the end of its own road, Mineral King.
• Kings Canyon National Park: Grant Grove, with the General Grant Tree, and Cedar Grove, at the bottom of one of the deepest canyons in the country.

No road crosses the Sierra through either park, so both are entered from the west. Highway 198 leads in from Three Rivers through the Ash Mountain entrance, and Highway 180 leads in from Fresno through the Big Stump entrance. The park says to allow at least two hours to drive the Generals Highway from end to end.

What does Sequoia cost a visitor from abroad?

Sequoia and Kings Canyon cost a visitor from abroad $35 per car for one to seven days plus $100 per person aged 16 or over. Both parks are on the Park Service's list of eleven parks with the non-resident surcharge, so two adults from abroad in one car pay $235. A motorcycle pays $30, and someone on foot or on a bike $20; children under 16 pay nothing.

The $250 non-resident America the Beautiful pass covers the car fee and the surcharge here and at every other national park for a year. The entrance stations take cards and phone wallets only. The park store in the Foothills and Kings Canyon visitor centres sells the $35 car pass for cash. Our guide to national park fees for international visitors has the full arithmetic.

You need no entry reservation: the park says reservations are neither accepted nor required.

What is there to see in Giant Forest?

Giant Forest is the sequoia grove at the heart of Sequoia National Park, between about 5,000 and 7,000 feet. Most first visits are spent here, and its car parks are usually full by mid-morning in summer.

• General Sherman Tree: the largest tree in the world by volume, about 52,500 cubic feet. It stands 274.9 feet tall and measures 102.6 feet around at the ground. The main trail runs half a mile down from the car park off Wolverton Road and climbs back up, and a short accessible trail starts on the Generals Highway.
• Moro Rock: a rock summit reached by a stairway of over 350 steps that climbs 300 feet in a quarter of a mile, with drop-offs and handrails. It is a mile from the Giant Forest Museum, and the stairway closes when icy.
• Tunnel Log: a sequoia that fell across the road in 1937 and was tunnelled through, 17 feet wide and 8 feet high, with a bypass for taller vehicles.
• Crescent Meadow: at the end of the Moro Rock–Crescent Meadow Road, the start of the meadow loop and the High Sierra Trail.

The Moro Rock–Crescent Meadow Road is closed to vehicles over 22 feet long and to anything towing. On summer weekends, while the shuttles run, it closes to private cars from morning to late afternoon. In 2021 the KNP Complex Fire killed thousands of mature giant sequoias in its most intense areas, and the park wrapped the General Sherman Tree in protective foil as the fire approached.

Which Sequoia and Kings Canyon walks fit a first visit?

Sequoia and Kings Canyon's best first walks are short and paved, most of them among the big trees. Distances are the Park Service's, from its trail pages.

Most trails in the parks start above 5,000 feet, so the climbs feel harder than their numbers suggest. Pets are not allowed on any trail. A section of the Congress Trail was closed for rebuilding through September 2026.

Is Crystal Cave open in 2026?

Crystal Cave is closed for the rest of 2026. The last public tours ran on 7 September, and Crystal Cave Road closed the next day for repairs. The Park Service expects tours to start again in late spring 2027. Tickets are sold only online by the Sequoia Parks Conservancy, never at the cave, for a 50-minute tour in a cave that stays at 50°F. The road up to it is closed to vehicles over 22 feet.

What is open in Grant Grove and Cedar Grove?

Grant Grove and Cedar Grove are the two areas of Kings Canyon National Park, and only Grant Grove is a year-round destination. Grant Grove is home to the General Grant Tree, the second-largest tree in the world. It has been the Nation's Christmas Tree since 1926 and is the only living national shrine.

Cedar Grove lies at 4,600 feet at the end of Highway 180, about 30 miles and an hour beyond Grant Grove along the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway. The park compares its valley to Yosemite's. The road is generally open from the fourth Friday in April to mid-November, and in 2026 it closes on 13 November.

Every service in Cedar Grove closed after 25 October 2026, though: the lodge, the market, the visitor centre and the last open campground. Until 13 November the road leads to a valley with no services at all.

A 482-acre prescribed burn began at Grant Grove on 17 October 2026, and the park announced that the General Grant Tree Trail and its road would close until cleared. The road table of 23 October listed Grant Tree Road as open. We found no notice that the trail itself has reopened, so check at the Kings Canyon Visitor Center.

Which roads close in winter, and which vehicles are limited?

The Generals Highway between Lodgepole and Grant Grove is unplowed and often closed from the Friday after 1 January to the third Friday in March. Highway 245, outside the parks, is the detour between them. Chains may be required whenever it snows, usually from late autumn to spring.

The Generals Highway's lower stretch is steep and full of hairpin bends. Vehicles over 24 feet are not advised between the Foothills Visitor Center and Potwisha, and over 22 feet between Potwisha and the Giant Forest Museum. Single vehicles over 40 feet may not use that stretch. Longer vehicles should use the Big Stump entrance on Highway 180, which the park calls straighter, less steep and wider.

Mineral King Road, a narrow and partly unpaved road from Three Rivers to a high valley at the south of the park, closes for the winter on 28 October 2026. From 29 September to 25 November 2026 hazard-tree work also brings weekday delays of up to 30 minutes on the Generals Highway north of Giant Forest, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Where can you buy fuel and stay near Sequoia?

Sequoia and Kings Canyon have no petrol station and no electric car charger in either park. The nearest fuel is in Three Rivers, five miles outside the Ash Mountain entrance, and in Dunlap, 20 miles west of Grant Grove on Highway 180. Hume Lake, in the national forest 11 miles north of Grant Grove, sells fuel by card, but the trip planner warns its pumps are not always open.

The parks have four lodges, run by one concessioner and booked through it. Wuksachi Lodge, with 102 rooms near Lodgepole, is the one open all year. John Muir Lodge and the Grant Grove Cabins are in Grant Grove and close after 28 November 2026. Cedar Grove Lodge has closed for the season.

Nearly all of the 14 campgrounds take reservations on Recreation.gov, at $32 a night. Lodgepole, Potwisha, Azalea and Sentinel open four months ahead, and Dorst Creek, Sunset, Sheep Creek and Moraine one month ahead. Potwisha is open all year. Azalea, in Grant Grove, turns first-come, first-served from 1 November. Black bears live in both parks, so every scented item goes in the metal food boxes or out of sight in the car boot.

When is the best time to visit Sequoia and Kings Canyon?

Sequoia and Kings Canyon are best from June to September, when every road is normally open and the higher trails are clear of snow. The park says snow can fall from October into June. The temperature changes by 20 to 30 degrees between the foothills and the groves.

The table gives NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals, highs and lows, for Lodgepole near Giant Forest and Ash Mountain at the park headquarters in the foothills. Lodgepole averages 220 inches of snow a year, the most in February. In summer the park's ozone levels often exceed federal health standards.

Free shuttles run inside Sequoia National Park in summer, from 22 May to 7 September in 2026, and again over Thanksgiving, 26 to 29 November. Kings Canyon has none.

How far is Sequoia from Los Angeles and San Francisco?

Sequoia is 225 miles and about four hours from the Los Angeles area to the Ash Mountain entrance, by the Park Service's figures. Kings Canyon is 250 miles and four and a half hours from San Francisco to the Big Stump entrance. From the Ash Mountain entrance the park says to allow an hour more to climb the hairpins to Giant Forest.

The nearest towns are Visalia, 36 miles from Ash Mountain, and Fresno, 60 miles from Big Stump, both with airports. Yosemite's south entrance is 130 miles from Big Stump, so the two parks pair well.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon are among the parks in our guide to California, with Yosemite National Park to the north. The other national parks in California are Channel Islands National Park, Death Valley National Park, Joshua Tree National Park, Lassen Volcanic National Park, Pinnacles National Park, Redwood National and State Parks and Yosemite National Park.