Sequoia Shuttle

Pros: Inexpensive, considering the amount of driving saved.
Cons: Erratic pick ups not on schedule, must stringently stick to schedule in order to leave park
At first the Sequoia Shuttle seemed like a really good deal. They picked me and a friend up in Visalia and then hauled us all the way into Sequoia, about an hour and half of driving saved. The seats were decent, with a little cushioning. I figured that it we would’ve spent just as much money on gas alone had we driven, and Sequoia has a bunch of hairpin uphill turns that I didn’t want to deal with in my manual transmission car.
There’s shuttles that operate solely within the park, taking you to the most popular points.
Had the shuttle schedule been reliable, I probably would’ve given Sequoia Shuttle five stars. Unfortunately, after we were done at the first stop, Moro Rock, there was a huge line to take a shuttle out. That combined with late shuttles made it over an hour wait to get out. The shuttle is supposed to be around every 20 minutes. The first shuttle out didn’t show up until well over 30 minutes, and we had to wait until the third shuttle came because there was just too much build up, and people just crowded around the shuttle to get in instead of waiting in a line.
You have to book your departure time in advance, and if you don’t come on time you risk not being able to get out of the park (at least not by shuttle) if other shuttles are full. There is only one centrally located stop to take a shuttle out of the park.
The strict no-​latecomer policy combined with unreliability made us uneasy and unable to enjoy the rest of the day. I was constantly worried if we would be able to take other shuttles back to the central location in order to meet our scheduled departure time. We were constantly looking at trail maps to make sure we didn’t veer off course and cut our hike of the Congressional Trail short because we were worried about not making it back in time – Would our shuttle ride back to the central location arrive as promised? Would there be a 1 hour backup line of people waiting to get back to the central location?
Next time I will rent a car with an automatic transmission, get up early, and drive myself into the park. $ 30 for two people is an insignificant amount of money to pay in order to enjoy my vacation.