Our home base for these two parks is Visalia CA. During our preparation we had planned on doing one of these parks a day, due to winter road closures. we were stunned and elated when we were told at the entrance gate that the road between the two parks was now opened, and that the requirement to have mandatory tire chains in the vehicle inside the park had just been lifted.
The upside is that we got to go through the two parks in a single day. We were so impressed with what we saw, and aware that the direction of travel influences the views, that we decided on day two to drive though the two parks again, but in the opposite direction.
In both parks, the stars are most definitely the sequoia trees