Kia

We rented a bright red Kia Soul Turbo to cross the desert from Bakersfield up to Sequoia National Park, partly because it was bright red. It looks small from outside and isn’t — room for four adults and a large cooler, with the three of us comfortable through four and a half hours of highways 65 and 198. We left so early the gas stations were still shut, which cost us coffee and bought us sunrise over the desert. Red rock, then mountains, then Joshua trees along the road. The Soul took the winding park roads without complaint, which matters when every corner is a reason to pull over. One of them is the short hike to the General Sherman, the largest living tree on earth by volume.