Seeing the red woods in CA

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My wife and one of my sons really are jonesin to go out to California and see the red woods.

I've done some research etc but I'd like to see if anyone here has some real world experience on which park to go to and then which area of that park to see?

Also hotel info would be great too.

I'm thinking of a 3-4 night stay once we fly out there.

Or if anyone has a nice relative out there with a big enough house to accommodate 5 extra folks for a few days LOL :D

Thanks in advance for any info.
 
I'd post in the Sierra Chapter. Nick is out on the west coast now training with the Army. He might know something. Geof is a good guy and lives in La and could probably tell you better then anyone. His wife IIRC is from VA. cannot remember is he is from there or not.
 
I replied to your PM and just realized my geography of California is still horrible. I haven't been out to Sequoia yet but I have been to Yosemite twice. It's about a 4 hour drive for me to most of the Sierras so I may be able to make it out there to see y'all depending on the timing. I'll ask my Outdoor Rec program director about Sequoia tomorrow, he used to live in the Eastern Sierras and worked for the Forest Service. Hotel wise... everything is super expensive. Staying outside big areas will help.
 
What time of year and which redwoods? There are your coastal redwoods up further North and your Sequoias in the center of the state.
 
I recommend the North Coast.
 
GSequoia said:
What time of year and which redwoods? There are your coastal redwoods up further North and your Sequoias in the center of the state.
Click to expand...

Our kids have spring break at the end of March...so that's out tentative goal.

I think it's possible based on what little I've read Yosemite could still have a lot of snow on the ground making hiking with kids not so fun.

Nick if it did work out where we could meet up that would be great! I'm not opposed to going to San Francisco at some point if time/money permits. As much as we want to see the trees...the Golden Gate would be cool too.

Based on the reading and the prices I've found for lodges and hotels I'm leaning towards trying to get into Sequoia and Kings Canyon NP's.

Again I'm just going based on what I've read so far.

It seems the areas up around the Humboldt SP and then Redwoods SP closer to Crescent City are great but the reviews I read on hotels and surrounding areas etc were not good...I don't want to get somewhere and have the scenery be awesome but all else be bad.
 
Sequoia/Kings Canyon is mid-elevation so could have snow. This may be an odd year as we have projections for a lot of water coming out of the sky in winter.

FYI for Sequoia it's only about an hour fifteen or so out of Fresno. If the budget starts to close up you could always find a cheaper place on the East side of Fresno and drive up for day sorties into the parks.
 
GSequoia said:
Sequoia/Kings Canyon is mid-elevation so could have snow. This may be an odd year as we have projections for a lot of water coming out of the sky in winter.

FYI for Sequoia it's only about an hour fifteen or so out of Fresno. If the budget starts to close up you could always find a cheaper place on the East side of Fresno and drive up for day sorties into the parks.
Click to expand...

Yeah I researched the weather and it looks like March has one of the higher avg snow and rainfalls and fairly cold temps still (I love it but the wife and kids don't)

So...kids are out of school 1st week of June and the temps then seem to be great on avg and the snow/rain is all but done...at least the average is LOW.

We're looking at 4 nights and the Wuksachi lodge has rooms that will suit us that's only about $15 more a night than most of the half decent hotels I looked at.

So other than the damned pricey flights (which we're trying to find better rates now) we think we've got it planned and hopefully will book it some time in the next week.

Of course then tomorrow something will change so...LOL

If anyone has any other recommendations or thoughts please feel free...this will be the furthest we've ever traveled from home.

Nick...you think you can get up that way?
 
Snow in early June isn't exactly unusual, FYI.

Where are you planning on flying to? San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, or Ontario then rent a car, it's about a toss-up in terms of driving time. Flying directly to Fresno is an option but may end up more pricey.
 
You don't need to go in the sierras to see redwoods. Pictures from around my home in Santa Cruz Ca. Not to mention there's a beach theme park. One of the last in USA. Beautiful mountains and weather on June. Sorry I don't have any direct pictures of the scenery. There's some amazing combinations of first and second generation redwoods. That little "treehouse" in the second pic is built on a stumb about 16' in diameter.



 
GSequoia said:
Snow in early June isn't exactly unusual, FYI.

Where are you planning on flying to? San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, or Ontario then rent a car, it's about a toss-up in terms of driving time. Flying directly to Fresno is an option but may end up more pricey.
Click to expand...

I'd recommend Sacramento to fly into personally. I spent a lot of time at my last job flying back and forth to CA (100,000 airline miles last year alone), and while I couldn't get direct flights to SAC, the fact that it was a much smaller and easier to navigate airport made up for it.

SFO (San Fran) isn't a bad airport, and was my top choice for when I needed to have a direct flight. Never cared for LAX (Los Angeles). Always busy and almost always had flight delays as a result. Maybe that was just my bad luck.
 
I have no experience with Sacramento, I've only driven there.

I've flown in and out of San Francisco a bunch of times (I have an office there) and never had much of a problem.

Oakland is another option I forgot to mention, FYI.

I don't mind LAX, either.

I have no experience with Ontario.

Now that said Sacramento is the shortest drive of the bunch. San Francisco and Oakland may be a bitch to drive out of depending on time of day. Los Angeles is the next closest but time of day matters a lot getting out of the L.A. area (I can give guidance there, I live there). Ontario may be an easier airport than LAX but you will face similar traffic issues (albeit a different route).

BTW - Here's a Sequoia album from my recent trip: http://www.advlifestyle.com/photos/index.php?/category/496
 
831_xj said:
You don't need to go in the sierras to see redwoods. Pictures from around my home in Santa Cruz Ca. Not to mention there's a beach theme park. One of the last in USA. Beautiful mountains and weather on June. Sorry I don't have any direct pictures of the scenery. There's some amazing combinations of first and second generation redwoods. That little "treehouse" in the second pic is built on a stumb about 16' in diameter.
Click to expand...

I like the sound of that. I know we want to see the 'trees' but I also know that 1-2 days of that and my wife and kids will want something else...so the beach theme park may be the ticket.

It looks like flying into San Francisco would be ok and then there's tons to do between there and Santa Cruz.

And yeah...Flying into Fresno is $$ ...$100-200 more per person. So that may be out altogether...shows how much I TOUGHT I knew about the redwoods...I didn't realize there were so many SP's in that area with them.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a hotel in the San Francisco area. Don't need ritzy...just clean and safe and a decent location.
 
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Coming out of MCO, Southwest services Oakland (not San Fran). Near LA they do Ontario, LAX, and John Wayne. They fly to San Diego, and Sacramento. Also, they service Reno/Tahoe which might be an option...near the Rubicon Trail!!
 
Note that there are two different kinds of redwoods. Coastal redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens, are going to be the tallest in the world. Sequoiadendron giganteum you need to go to the Sierras to see, which are the biggest by volume.

As far as flights go, the cheapest I found to come home for Christmas is out of SFO. SFO to Yosemite is 2-3 hours at most, plus you can knock out the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and other San Fran activities. Santa Cruz is 45ish minutes south of SF, so realistically you could see both trees and SF in one vacation.
 
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