Three Rivers

I guess the title is a little misleading.  First off, the community is named Three Rivers, but really, there's one river (I mean, there must be two others or some reason for the name, but most of what we saw was along the Kaweah River).  Second, it's not like I explored the town at great length.  Walk to coffee, walk to dinner, enjoy our hotel.  Not much more than that, alas.

But I did want to single out the stay there so that other posts can focus on the national parks, so here we are:  Three Rivers.

There are a lot of visitors to Sequoia National Park annually - 1.4 million, I think I read - and so even though the community of 2-3000 is unincorporated, there is stuff in Three Rivers, including tourist amenities.  Some cute shops.  River rafting.  Vacation rentals.  Small hotels.  But also churches and a library and the sorts of places that the locals go to.  That all makes sense.

After seeing Sequoias, we drove back down along the river and to the hotel, the Rio Sierra Riverhouse. 

The website makes it sound like a small boutique inn or resort, but it's a little more like an AirBnB.  I don't mean that disparagingly.  Rather, it's a large house divided into three rooms/apartments,  Each has its own entry, and no one uses a lobby or check in.  We didn't see the host, just communicated via text as needed and otherwise read the guidelines left for us.  It was fine, it worked for us.

We had booked the Master Suite, and it was quite something.  A full apartment, with an en suite bedroom, a living room, sun room, kitchen and dining nook, and another bedroom area separated from the living room by a folding screen.  The style was eclectic, but it was all quite comfortable. 

We brought in some food and wine on the first night, and we were able to take advantage of the dining nook and kitchen before retiring to the living room to read and relax.

What sells the Riverhouse more than anything, perhaps, is that it's right on the river. 

It seems that most of the riverfront through Three Rivers is privately owned, and this was the case for the hotel.  What is more, they'd set up chairs and a hammock for people to relax by the river.  And even in the river - not far out, of course, but close in, in the shallow pools.  We dipped a toe,

but we saw other guests soaking in the shallows, safe from the current.  It was hot enough that it would have been refreshing for us to do, but we never got around to it.  Ah well.  It was a lovely setting, and I could hear the welcome white noise of the flow at night as I fell asleep.  Both mornings we were there, I saw river rafting outings go by, which was a delight to see. 

Not an activity I have ever done myself, but maybe one day.

We had a nice stay at the hotel, for sure, and I would recommend it to others.  The lodge in the park may be a fancier stay (though the food service looks a bit underwhelming right now), but our hotel was great to return to and so easy to get to the nearby restaurants and such.  I'm glad we stayed.