Joe360

My family and I are going to go camping in Sequoia Tue. through Thur. at the Potwisha campgrounds. I'm planing on taking my road bike to get some riding in. The only road near by is the 198. Have any of you ever ridden that road? On Google maps it seems like the road is fairly straight forward with only 3 intersections in miles. If nothing else I can just ride up to the Giant Forest Museum. Any advice or just the retelling of previous experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Joe

jabantik00

i took the sierra-cascades from palmdale to yosemite this past august and stayed a night at potwisha. they were doing major construction on the road from somewhere past buckeye to that place on the road where there's 4 giant sequoias in a line. the person flagging traffic said no bike riding allowed, and i had to hitch a ride in a pickup. you should call the park service or check around and see if the construction is finished yet. it looked like a really big project - i bet it's really nice if they are done. if they aren't, you may have to hitch a ride through some parts, but there will surely be plenty of good riding

bdm1213

I actually rode the 198 from Three Rivers to up past the Wuksachi Lodge and back last weekend. It's a fantastic ride! Regarding construction, as of last week they were working Mon-Thu, so if you're riding on one of those days, you'll likely have to stop and get a ride from the crew truck up a couple miles as jabantik00 mentioned. Fri-Sun was unrestricted when I went, so I just rode straight up.

The road was clear of snow/ice last weekend, but at over 7K feet, it's always something to look out for. I would recommend riding Crescent Meadow road once you get to the top of the main climb. It's the first right turn you can actually make up near the top. It's a narrow, windy road through giant sequoias that heads to moro rock (worth seeing!) and the fallen tunnel tree. It's only a few miles long, but worth checking out.

Have fun!

Joe360

Thanks so much for the info. Im sad to learn about the construction. I guess we will have to figure it out. As far as Crescent Meadow road is this it?
Sorry for the poor quality screenshot. I'm at work.

bdm1213

Nope, Crescent Meadow is a ways up the 198, once you've already gotten into the giant sequoias. In fact, it's basically connected to the Giant Forest Museum. There will be signs that say Moro Rock and Crescent Meadow that you can follow.

Here's my ride: https://app.strava.com/activities/45737945

I went down Crescent Meadow on the way back at about mile 44.5.

Lesper4

I just came down that road Saturday. I like to climb in the mountain but that road has not shoulder at all but I imagine it is a great climb, solid 8% in parts.

Joe360

Wow, bdm thats is one cool looking ride. Thanks for sharing putting up your strava ride. That helped a whole lot. My wife will be doing the ride with me and although she has spirit she isn't the strongest climber. I suppose we can take it easy. It seems like the ride up to The Giant Forest Museum will be the hardest. I'm way too excited, thanks for helping out with some ideas.

calamarichris

Sequoia's an awesome ride! Hopefully they're letting cyclists through now. It's pretty steep in sections, but riding through the Sequoia Grove is something everyone should do--it's pretty tragic that most of the visitors have to drive though it, with the auto noise, a ceiling over their head, and insulated from the cool, silent blackness of that forest in spots.
The road is indeed narrow, but the speed limit through much of park is only 25mph, and it seems like half of the people who visit Sequoia are Europeans, who are a little more savvy when approaching cyclists.
Haha--took me about 2.5 hours to ride up to Wuxsachi, and about 15 (fun) minutes to ride back down to Three Rivers.

Joe360

Those are some beutiful pictures. I've been to sequoia a couple of times but that was before I started riding. I can imagine the feeling of serenty that comes from being in the shadow of an ancient giant tree grove. My wife says that when we take pictures WE need to be in them.

hamster

Not personally familiar with the area, but I see a side road off 198 about 5 miles before the Potwisha campground (Mineral King Road) which appears to be paved and should see less traffic than the main highway. But the road itself may be less scenic and quality of the pavement may be questionable.

Just outside the park, I recall seeing a bunch of cyclists on Yokohl Valley Road.

jabantik00

this is on the road to mineral king. if you want to ride something other than the generals' highway, mineral king is an option. it probably isn't as scenic, and the road is sorta narrow and crappy in places, but there will be much less traffic and no giant rvs. it's probably a pretty nice climb/descent if you're not on an xtracycle with camping gear, bear keg, etc.