Last time I went was in April 2019. We stayed in Vasalia, Ca, which is a nice little city with good food and fairly close to Sequoia and Yosemite.
Sequoia and Kings Canyon NPs are great. The sequoia trees are up high, 6,000 ft +. It's an easy enough drive up to the park but some of the switchbacks up the side of the mountains can be dizzying for a flatland easterner like myself. But the trees are worth the trip.
If you go, you have to see the General Sherman. The biggest currently living tree in the world. Branches on that are as big as big oak trees in the east.