The Eastern Sierra Visitor's Center is a great place to gather information before stopping at…read moreWhitney Portal, Alabama Hills, Big Pine, and Death Valley National Park. They carry detailed maps and souvenirs for purchase, and there are rangers on site who are available to answer any questions that you may have in regards to trails and weather conditions. I stopped here before attempting to hike from Whitney Portal to Lone Pine Lake. The rangers let me know that there would be too much snow and that a snow storm was brewing in Whitney Portal and that they didn't advise anyone to hike there at that time. They encouraged me to explore the Alabama Hills instead which I happily ended up doing. I was very grateful that stopped there first because it would have been scary to get stuck in the snow and/or snow storm up in Whitney Portal. You can also acquire Mount Whitney and hiking permits here. There are restrooms on site but they weren't open at the time that I was there, so they had portable restrooms right outside. There's a few small exhibits that you can check out as well if you have time. The rangers were very helpful and I will definitely stop by again during a different time of the year before heading to Whitney Portal.

The visitor center has a gift shop, clean restrooms, a nice drought resistant garden, a 3d map of…read morethe sierras. Nice place will return.

If you're looking to camp and you don't want to drive too far from Los Angeles, Red Rock Canyon…read moreState Park is a great option. They have several campgrounds which is first and first serve. There's also several hiking spots in the area, which are less than a mile. There's also a visitor center, which has a lot of information about the park and clean bathroom. Great spot for photos!

Beautiful state park offering a cute Visitor Center, plentiful hiking trails, and a campground…read more Entrance fee as of Feb. 2026 is $5.00, payable at the Visitor Center, and is required to park anywhere in the park. Known for its striking red cliffs, this park also offers great wildflower viewing. I hiked the Hagen Canyon Trail, which already had flowers blooming in what is technically still winter! Highly recommended.

Don't just make a Barstow stop on the way to Vegas to go to the restroom or to get fast food; check…read moreout the NASA Goldstone Visitor Center... 4 stars!!!! Learn all about the satellite ground station located in Fort Irwin, CA that tracks and communicates with interplanetary space missions at this visitor center. Located in the second floor of the historic Harvey House at the Barstow Amtrak Train Station, the visitor center offers interactive exhibits to learn how the Jet Propulsion Laboratory tracks and communicates with interplanetary spacecrafts. Not just kids, but also adults can find this center a worthwhile stop in Barstow. As a bonus, you can also learn about the historic Harvey House as well as visit the Western America Railroad Museum and the Route 66 "Mother Road" Museum, all during the same stop.

Wow I didn't think much of this place until I got home to read the brochures and went online…read more Goldstone is one of three complexes around the world known as the Deep Space Network (DSN) that provides the ability to communicate with spacecraft! This is on the top floor of the Amtrak train station in Barstow, Ca. There work is within the two-way robotic spacecraft communication and radio astronomy. The Goldstone Deep Space Network Visitor's Center is OPEN Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 9am-3pm and Saturdays 10am-4pm with no cost to visit and no reservations required. They are closed on Federal Holidays. Historic Harvey House (Casa Del Desierto) 681 North First Avenue, Barstow, CA 92311 The main Harvey House entrance faces South toward the Railroad Tracks and this is located on the second floor. This is a road that is not traveled by much traffic.

I was out here in early February to run the Death Valley Marathon. I stopped in here to purchase a…read morepark pass for one private vehicle for $30, good for 1 week. I opted to buy it through the kiosk that was located near the entrance. I went inside to check things out. With the park pass, I was given a map of Death Valley. In the lobby, they had a cool 3D map with buttons to light up the location of each area. They also had souvenirs and snacks for purchase. Off to the right was a small yet quite informative museum. Outside and off to the left were restrooms. Everyone working here was very nice, friendly, and helpful!

Nice little visiting center for Death Valley national park. Clean restrooms, some small food…read moreoptions, gift shop, information desk, plenty of parking and the people working were very friendly.

This place truly exceeded my expectations. It is seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The Mojave has…read morelots of places that fit that description. So when I made the drive to the visitor center I was blown away by the nice, friendly, informative setup. There is a large parking area right next to the 24/7 operating borax strip mine. It has a really nice visitor center with museum style exhibits, photos, historical information, and a theater which shows an educational film. There are friendly, knowledgeable volunteers and a nice little gift shop with lots of free pamphlets too. The top of the visitor center is a large observation deck from which you can view the huge operation. Nice photo ops here. Not a short drive but really glad I came.

This was a fun little place to stop. Our kids really enjoyed it too. Worth a visit if you're in the…read morearea.

Probably the BEST Visitor Center we have visited, not the biggest, but Fran made it the best. She…read morewas super friendly and informative. She gave us an overview of the area in great detail and really gave us some great ideas. Fran made us want to see it all. We are excited about our visit and we really appreciate the info that Fran provided. Plenty of brochures to supplement what Fran spoke about. Definitely stop in when visiting this great town.

This was a great visitor center with very kind and knowledgeable workers. We learned a lot and…read morewere given extra guidance about the area. We really appreciated the help we received. Thank you very much!!

Before I visited the place, I had heard of the Sequoia National Park several times throughout my…read morelife and all these mentions amounted to me believing one large fact: that the place was a sprawling, maybe never ending, sea of deep forest pageantry. And do not get me wrong, the place is in fact miles and miles and cubic centimeters of forest as commonly imagined. It had tall trees, meadows, dirt paths with twigs and shrubs all around and views so expansive the word majestic comes to mind. But after walking the same scenery for hours the beauty in green became a dull brown motif. Wood sprites might have heard my words or seen my unimpressed and tired face because Sequoia stopped being a forest of trees and green and it started to become a land of different weathers that not only gave me new challenges and vistas to experience but it also gave me beauty I had to endure. As I saw my friend Denise walk into a spherical cloud of fog, I realized that this place oscillated between being both proof of nature's magic and her jagged disposition. The fog seemed like a portal to Avalon where Pulk waited with prose, but it was also a reminder of all the sailors and drivers lost when the thickness of mist impairs good visual choices. The fog sphere was seen after Denise and I walked for hours, uphill, to see Morro Rock. As we walked up, we first passed mist that seem to have broken from a cloud. This was a sensational moment. She and. had both skydove but this is the first time where we felt like we walked through cloud veils, insetad of zooming past them with the hope of gravitiy abandon. I do not think I will ever re-feel the sensation of walking on cloud air, literally. She and I got separated. I thought I could follow the signs. But the signs were tricksters. As I walked toward the museum I saw a sign that said this way to Crescent Meadow. I did not see a sign that said this way to Crescent Meadow (pointing to the left) and this way to the Museum (pointing ahead). I assumed that because I no longer saw signs assuring me that I was on the right path, I must have gotten into the wrong one. I share this as the biggest piece of advice that I wish to give: Stay the trail, despite not having signs of reassurance that you are still in the right direction. The signs, and my broken internal compass, are both valid reasons as to why I eventually left the designated path and got lost. Like legit lost in the wilderness of Sequoia. I was not in an episode of Naked and Afraid but I did feel scared, disoriented and like I would not see my life tomorrow. Before I got to this point of panic, I arrived at a bluff of a white mountain that saw me greet miles of green pines that streched as far as the eye could see. It was a Rocky-like-triumph moment, except that I had to drag myself, as I sat, down this white mountain, but that was my survival experience that I am proud to have endured. After sliding down, I searched for paths that seemed walked on before, and found several that I had to follow and eliminae. I climbed over trees by hugging their fallen bark, and almost lost my shoe. I continued and eventually found a path and others humans. I was save for now. I got lost again but this time my survival was quicker as I walked down to the road. Rangers told me that I was not able to ride in the truck after I explained I was scared and unable to find my way twice. One of them told me to follow the road and eventually I would hit the museum. I did just that and I found my friend Denise waiting in the museum. After hugs laced with relief, she and I continued our trek to Sherman. But we got hit by rain. I had a hoodie. She did not. Her face looked beautiful covered with the remains of heavy rain. We walked and the sleet followed. We were wet, damp, and we were scared. What could be next? We could not find our path to Sherman. We waved people down, hoping that someone would take us to our car near Sherman. Eventually, we met Chester and he let us both into his car. The snow now was falling hard. She and I did not expect snow. We did not expect white to fall from the sky not when we were promised green on top of green all around. We got to the car and she drove in Snow for the first time. It was both scary and and beuatiful. I imagined that I was in snow caped mountains seeing frozen giants walk around. The night was gray. The monsters were there. She worried about us not having snow tired but still we drove down the snow covered pines, in a pilgramage to safety. Before we left the park we saw mist contrasted in the dark of the knight. It was a spooky evening, yes, the one that frames scary stories. But for us the night mist was further proof that Sequoia offers weather that is cyclical within a day. With space from the experience, I am only happythat I visited the place and was ensconsed by its many seasons. And, grateful that I survived the beauty of it all.

Sequoia national Park is quite the experience, but I want to warn you. There is a very long drive…read moreto get up to see the sequoia trees. I believe it was roughly 45 minutes to get up there to begin to see these trees and the road was very long and windy and at one point I was for sure we were going the wrong way even though there's only one way I was for sure. But after that 45 minute drive up, you begin to see these remarkably tall, beautiful sequoia trees as far as they I can see and each one of them more breathtaking than ever we went during winter so I definitely encourage you to check and make sure that you don't need to bring snow chains because to travel to a lot of the areas in winter and other seasons, you might just need snow chains to make it My family had a great time we spent just a few hours walking around and enjoying the beautiful view the fresh Mountain air and getting a chance to interact with other people traveling from all over the country who had come to visit as well. This is also something you must add to your bucket list because even though we only got to see 1/10 of this park, we already have it put back on our bucket list to go again because there's so much more to see here truly breathtaking views and just a relaxing experience all the way around.

The kids love collecting Junior Ranger badges, so we always make a point to visit the visitor…read morecenter. This time, we were fortunate to meet the most knowledgeable and professional park ranger we've ever encountered. He patiently explained the park's highlights to the kids, showed them how to estimate the age of trees, and shared so much fascinating information about sequoia trees. He also gave us excellent advice on the best route to take. We truly felt lucky to have met him.

Although small, I found Foothills Visitors Center to be a good initial pitstop before driving…read moredeeper into the Sequoias. There was plenty of parking near the entrance but it fills up quickly after 10AM. There was a small patch of greenery out front along with trash cans and bathrooms. There was free wifi provided. There was a small exhibit indoors sharing some of the wildlife and history of the Sequoias. There was also a section dedicated to significant female figures involved with the national park in light of Women's History Month. There were a few souvenirs for sale, most of them being similar to those found at the Giant Forest Museum. There was also a stamp station for those collecting them for their passports. Good starting station to urinate and wash up before the long drive.

I can't believe I've lived in California my entire life and never visited the Sequoias until now…read more It was such an amazing experience. The weather was perfect, and the trails were incredible. This place is absolutely stunning. I hope to come back someday. 1/11/25

I decided to go see the Trailer of 100 Giants. It had signs. There was a $12.00 fee. They had an…read morearea where you can drop in the envelope. There are signs with descriptions in regards to the trees. Part of the trail was closed. Overall, it was great to see the sequoias. There also is a gift shop nearby with souvenirs and some snacks.