It’s been crazy hot in Los Angeles considering it’s January and we’re still in the middle of winter. To escape the heat, we decided to head up to the mountains with the pups and enjoy a weekend of hiking where the giant Sequoia trees are! Visiting Sequoia has been on my list for a while, but we always picked a different location because Sequoia National Park is unfortunately. not very dog-friendly, similar to most other national parks we’ve tried to visit in the past. Most of them only allow dogs at campgrounds and on paved roads, so they are prohibited from hiking most of the trails. Fortunately, Sequoia National Forest is dog-friendly so we booked an Airbnb, packed our bags, and drove out, this time with four pups in tow.

We used AllTrails’ recommendation of best dog-friendly trails to decide where to explore the national forest with the dogs. Make sure you check Sequoia National Forest’s site for road closures, especially during the winter, and I would recommend using their directions for how to get to popular trails to ensure you don’t get lost!

Make sure to bring plenty of water for yourself and the dogs! Some trails can be trickier to follow and we definitely got lost a little bit. Thankfully, the pups were good sports and we all found our ways eventually.

Sequoia National Forest is also home to some really beautiful lakes! Check out AllTrails’ list of top lake hikes here.