In Sequoia we started by hiking to Marble Falls, which is about 7.4 miles round trip, and I learned that I am not in as good shape as I thought I was. The hike is a medium-grade difficulty but most of the trail to the falls is uphill, and a lot of it is right on the edge of the mountain; stepping 6 inches to the left would make you slide right down the mountainside. It took us 2 hours to hike to the falls but I’m glad we did it. Marble Falls is not one big falls – it’s a group of smaller falls strung together. The area has a lot of huge boulders with some marble in them, which gives the falls its name. It took us only 1 hr and 15 minutes to hike back from the falls (downhill helps!), after which we lunched on the peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches which we had stashed, in accordance with park rules, in a bear-proof box at the trailhead. I didn’t used to like peanut butter but after more than 3 hours of hiking, I really appreciated them!
The entrance to Sequoia Park was just 5 miles from our campsite but the Sequoia trees are about 18 miles inside the Park. Because they only grow at elevations of 5,000 to 7,000 feet, the road to get there is really steep and filled with switchbacks. The road is a good one but you definitely need to follow the speed limit, which often drops to 5 mph. At some points the grade was posted as 8%, but at other times they didn’t tell how much the grade was, probably to avoid scaring people. There are several mule deer in the park and they are obviously used to cars; several times we saw them grazing just 5 or 10 feet from the road.
The drive alone is worthwhile because of the beautiful vistas across the valley and neighboring mountains. But when you get to the Giant Forrest, it’s a whole new game.
Sequoias would be beautiful even if they weren’t so big. They are a gorgeous cinnamon-red color and their bark isn’t rough, like most trees. It looks and feels like built-up layers of paper or cardboard, and there is so much bark built up that it gives slightly to the touch, and makes the tree sound oddly hollow when you knock on it. Somewhere under all that bark (which in the really big trees can be one or two feet thick) are the actual tree trunks.
When we were there, there had been a recent 6-foot snowfall and the forest was covered in a thick fog. It was 34 degrees at that elevation so the snow had softened and packed down a bit – when I fell through the snow on the pathways (and I did that a lot) I only dropped a couple of feet down, but off the path the snow was a lot deeper. We walked out into the forest to find the biggest tree in the world – the General Sherman tree. Unfortunately the snowfall had covered the trail signs and the fog hid the treetops, so we ended up taking a round-about hike of almost a mile long, but eventually we found the right path. Most Sequoias are huge – the size of 2 or 3 normal trees bundled together. But General Sherman is unbelievable.
It’s not the tallest tree or the widest, but in volume, it’s the biggest. It’s 36.5 feet across, stands 275 feet tall and weighs about 1,385 TONS. There were probably a dozen people there that day, and everyone was practially speechless. It's the sort of thing you can hardly beleive, even while you are standing in front of it. 
Clear weather would have been nice,but the fog added extra atmosphere; the forest felt like a secret place and it was unearthly quiet. Everywhere we turned, the giant trees seemed to appear silently out of the mist. This was genuinely an awe-inspiring experience.
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