AlmostThere wrote:You will barely touch Sequoia - the best parts are a day or more of walking from the road. It's a backpacking park. Yosemite has more to offer than lines of tourists as well. Have fun...
Someone else told me the opposite - see the big trees and then move on. When I Google the park, all the pics look basically the same - big trees.
Phil wrote:It's nice to be able to know a place, not just say, "Oh yeah, I've been there." It's like having a 2 hour layover in Shanghai and saying you've experienced China.
But what you're saying is the equivalent of spending 3 days in Shanghai and saying you've experienced China. That's not quite right either. I'm trying to find a compromise that feels right to me. In the Canadian Rockies, I'm so glad that I saw Alberta and Banff. I could have stayed in one or the other, but considering I might never be back, I'm so glad that I saw as much as I did. Actually, the full day I spent hiking in the same area seems like it could have been better spent broken up into two smaller hikes. If anything, I regret staying in the same place so long. There was an awesome view of Peyto Lake, maybe a mile or two from the road. I stayed there for a couple hours, soaking it in, watching the clouds change and the sun move a little. It was probably my favorite spot of that trip. But there was so much beautiful awesomeness out there, I was ready to move on and see a different section.
I've been on mutiple-day backpacking trips. They're great. But if I'm only going to be in a part of the country once in my life, I'd rather split it up and see more variety. I just know that's what I like.
I do hope to find a hike that takes me out into a place significantly different from the roadsides in Yosemite. That's a big reason I am posting around and researching. Clouds Rest seems popular, but I'd spend most of my available time there - and the reward is probably not worth it to me (I don't like crowded hikes, I'm not sure how much different the views are from smaller hikes, etc.). I'm sure it's amazing, but I'm wondering if there isn't an area that's almost as amazing, that's less crowded, and maybe only a 5 mile hike (oppsed to 15 miles or whatever Clouds Rest is).
I do appreciate the opinions - it's part of my reason for posting.
I'm still having trouble understading about all the "gates" that were previously mentioned. Are they just gates that sometimes close the roads, and they were mentioned just to mark the locations? Or are they a special situation where something happens, like people have to stop and show their pass or something?