With our bicycles snug on their sparkling new rack, we motored south, then east, to Kings Canyon National Park. Our ultimate destination was Las Vegas, and the plan was to wend through Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks on the way… a tree-tour-detour.

I’ve written previously, ad nauseam really, about the awe we’ve experienced walking among and connecting with these earthly giants. So, I’ll spare you from more adjectives and let the photos speak for themselves…

I’m sure all of our photos from this odyssey have been most capable of speaking for themselves all along. (Sigh)

Yet, I write on.

In honor of our last hours with the giants, here are some factoids that Trey recorded:

• The General Sherman Sequoia is considered the world’s largest living tree by volume; it towers approximately 275 feet; and its base circumference is just shy of 103 feet

• Redwood bark can get up to 12 inches thick, while sequoias’ bark can expand outwards 31 inches
• Redwoods typically grow taller, but sequoias weigh more due to the girth of their trunks and branches

• The base of sequoia branches can be 40 feet in diameter stretching out to 8 feet in diameter… sequoia’s main branches look more like trees!
• Sequoias tend to live longer than redwoods, about 3,500 vs 3,000 years

Highway 198, also known as Generals Highway, led us away from the giants and out of Sequoia National Park.

Like the Beartooth Highway in Montana/Wyoming and the Sea-to-Sky Highway in British Columbia, the drive down Generals Highway from Sequoia NP to Three Rivers is an adventure.

A must do whenever the opportunity presents itself, or even when it doesn’t. The twists are numerous, turns dizzying, and the scenery is gorgeous.

A perfect transition to where the trajectory of our “great looping quest” was taking us…

…into the desert.

By the time we pulled into Bakersfield, California, the landscape was more reminiscent of West Texas…

More Pics…