Sequoia and Kings Canyon are two adjacent national parks managed jointly under a single superintendent — together they protect 865,000 acres of the southern Sierra Nevada, including the largest trees on earth (by volume) and the deepest canyon in the lower 48. Sequoia was the second national park ever designated, in 1890, three years before the bigger and more remote Kings Canyon. The Giant Forest holds five of the ten largest sequoias in the world, including the General Sherman Tree — the largest living organism on the planet at over 52,000 cubic feet of trunk volume. From I-5 the gateway is Visalia: CA-198 climbs 36 miles east through citrus orchards into oak woodland and finally into the Giant Forest, gaining 5,000 feet in elevation.
- Sequoia is the second-oldest US national park (1890)
- General Sherman Tree is the largest living organism on Earth by volume (~52,500 cu ft of trunk)
- Kings Canyon is the deepest canyon in the contiguous US (~8,200 ft from rim to river)
- Mount Whitney (14,505 ft) — highest peak in the lower 48 — sits inside Sequoia's east boundary
- CA-198 entrance road climbs 5,000 ft over 36 miles
