I'm standing in the freezing rain at an unsheltered bus stop with 20 others one afternoon the last week of April. When the bus finally arrives, to my amazement it's standing-room-only to my next destination just a few minutes away. It's not 42nd Street or even the Empire State Building, but the visitors center in Yosemite Valley. Though park officials report attendance at Yosemite National Park has dropped in the last decade, you'd never know it on this cold, drizzly day two weeks after Spring Break.
With 3.5 million visitors annually, Yosemite is among the country's most popular national parks - for good reason. Nothing compares to California's Sierra Nevada mountains, the range where Yosemite lives. The mountains are home to the giant sequoia trees, the largest living things on Earth, plus 1 4,494-foot Mount Whitney (the highest peak in the lower 48). They were also the subject for Ansel Adams' photographs and the inspiration for the founding of the Sierra Club.
The alpine meadows, the startlingly jagged granite peaks (Sierra means "saw" in Spanish), the roaring rivers, the glaciers, the high-country lakes, the big trees -- they're all in Yosemite, just like on the Discovery Channel. But so are a lot of people.
I live for my vacations in the West's national parks. Walking and hiking on high-altitude trails, sunbathing and swimming at rivers and lakes, napping, eating all you want 'cause you're getting so much exercise from being outside 90 percent of your waking hours. As an editor who commutes during Los Angeles' rush hours, when I get a chance to hike, swim, nap and eat, I want some serenity too - without concessionaire lines for lunch, traffic on trails or rambunctious sunbathers at "remote" river- and creek-sides. Thankfully, I've found my place.
Two california Parks Less Traveled
Fast-forward two months to the July 4 weekend - one of the year's busiest travel weekends. With no lodging reservations, but with tent and sleeping bag in tow, I headed to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, two neighboring parks located about an hour or so south of Yosemite. Same mountain range. Same fresh air. Same magnificent terrain. So, what's the difference? No crowds. (Call 559-565-3341 or go to sequoia.com.)
The first night, there was no vacancy at Sequoia National Park's new Wuksachi Village & Lodge ($130; 559-565-4070) where George W. and his presidential entourage settled in last summer to view the world-famous General Sherman tree - Guinness-World-Record-large at 36 1/2 feet in diameter and 275 feet tall. So I pitched my tent at the Dorst Creek campground ($16; 800-365-2267), just a short hike from both a large swimming hole I had to myself all day (except for the trout) and a people-free stand of giant sequoias aptly named the Lost Grove.
The next day, I packed up camp and headed for the 11-room Stony Creek Lodge ($96; 559-365-3464). The rustic park lodge, which takes its name from the nearby roaring creek (it looked like a river to me), is open Memorial Day through Sept. 15.
North to Kings Canyon
The next few nights were spent in Kings Canyon National Park, an exquisite, glacier-carved canyon that Sierra Club founder John Muir called "a rival to Yosemite" a century ago. Tougher to get to than Sequoia or Yosemite, it's accessible only via a 2B-mile road that drops into the canyon 2,000 feet in countless hairpin turns. As a result, fewer people visit - 550,000 compared to Sequoia's 840,000 annually. But missing this park would be a huge mistake.
The wild Kings River roars between the 9,500-foot-high granite walls of the canyon. It's a dramatic spectacle -- and one that makes Kings Canyon my favorite national park bar none.
I stayed in a "rustic cabin with bath' (some don't have them) at John Muir Lodge near the park entrance ($35-$90; 559-335-5500) as once you head down, lodging options dwindle to camping and two small lodges: Kings Canyon Lodge (559-335-2405) and Cedar Grove Lodge ($85; 559335-5500). (These are open June through Sept. 15 only because the winding road into Kings Canyon closes.)
As for Yosemite, I'll be back. But next time, I'll stay at the elegant, 19th-century Wawona Hotel ($96; 559-252-4848), which is located in Wawona about 25 miles south of the south entrance to the park and the congested Yosemite Valley. And I'll go in January, when park attendance dwindles to about 100,000.
