HOW TO MAKE THE BEST OF SEQUOIA AND KINGS CANYON NATIONAL PARKS
Sequoia National Park is named after on the largest tree species on the planet and it is home to the United States highest peaks. Neighboring Kings Canyon lays just to the north, Plunging 2000 feet deeper into the Earth than Arizona’s Grand Canyon.
Yet, despite their differences the two parks have much in common. Their valleys have been shaped by the same snow-fed cascades of the Central Sierra Nevada. While from their soils rise giant sequoias some of which first put down roots 3,000 years ago, long before the rise of the Roman Empire.
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks are living timelines that remind us that we have small parts in a story far greater than our own.
GETTING TO SEQUOIA NATIONAl PARK
There are a few ways to enter the Sequoia and Kinds Canyon National Park. If you are flying in, the closest commercial airport is at Fresno Yosemite International Airport. After picking up your rental car these are some of the way you reach this magical area.
If you are just driving on a road trip then these are the entrances you can utilize to start exploring these magnificent giants.
Ash Mountain Entrance
Highway 198 enters Sequoia National Park at the town of Three Rivers. Beyond the entrance station, the road is narrow and winding. Vehicles that are longer that 24 feet (7.3 m) are not advised between the Foothills Visitor Center and Potwisha Campground. Vehicles longer than 22 feet are not recommended (6.7 meters) on the stretch of road between Potwisha Campground and the Giant Forest Museum. This limit applies to tow trucks, as well.
Big Stump Entrance to Kings Canyon National Park
Highway 180 enters Kings Canyon National Park from the west via Fresno. Highway 180, the northern entrance to these parks, is the preferred route for these longer vehicles. Highway 180 is straighter, less steep, and wider.
Look Point Entrance to the Mineral King Area
If you’re heading to the remote Mineral King area of Sequoia National Park, look for the junction of Mineral King Road with Highway 198 in the town of Three Rivers, two miles before the Ash Mountain Entrance. This road is extremely narrow and winding and is unpaved in some areas. RVs and trailers are not advised and are not permitted in the campgrounds. It’s open from late May through the last Wednesday of October, weather permitting.Only trails connect Mineral King with the rest of Sequoia National Park.
A GUIDE TO SEQUOIA NATIONAl PARK
After passing Sequoia’s iconic entrance sign, follow Route 198 through the park’s sunlit foothills into the dappled shadows of its conifer zone. Pull over at Tunnel Rock, where generations of motorists left their mark before the road was rerouted in 1997.
Four miles on at Hospital Rock, see the marks of even earlier travelers, the Potwisha People, who for centuries used this healing place as a winter encampment.
Follow the hairpin switch backs ever upwards for another eight miles, turn left and follow the gentle melody of Yucca Creek into the depths of Crystal Cave. It was discovered by two employees on a fishing trip back in 1918, these marble caves have been shaped and polished by snow melt for over 100,000 years. (NOTE: Plan ahead and make reservations ahead of time. I missed this part)
After exploring the park’s subterranean worlds, if you get a chance, turn your gaze skyward at The Four Guardsmen, a grove of 1,000-year-old sequoias. These are mere adolescents compared to what lays just behind the Giant Forest.
Stop by the Overlook point and look up towards Moro Rock. You will soon make it there and climb the trail that takes you up this granite protrusion that rises 6.725 feet on the edge of the Gian Forest.
Make your way into the Giant Forest Museum to learn more about the sequoia tree, named after the Cherokee scholar who created the first alphabet for his people, and inspired the creation of writing systems for pre-literate languages all over the world. Which is somewhat ironic, for as you walk beneath the 8,000 sequoias of the Gian Forest, chances are you will be lost for words.
From the Museum, take the big Trees Trail, a wheelchair-friendly circuit where you will find favorites such as Ed by Ned, twin sequoias whose combined footprint is as large as a swimming pool.
Two miles from the museum pay your respects to one of the park’s elder statesmen, General Sherman, which rockets 16 stories into the sky and contains as much wood as an average 20-acre pine forest.
After straining your neck muscles looking up at one of the world’s largest living beings, take the 10-minute drive to Moro Rock. If you have stopped at the overlook point you will notice this magnificent wonder, which is one of the highest points in the U.S.
Climb the 400 steps up the bald granite dome, which juts the mountainside. To the West, look down Route 198, which zigzags up from the valley floor.
To the east gaze towards the great western divide piercing the clouds at over 13,000 feet. While to the North feel the call for even more adventure, from Kings Canyon.
KINGS CANYON NATIONAL PARK
Just an hour’s drive from Moro Rock, is Grant Grove Village, the sole gateway to Kings Canyon National Park. After learning more about the park’s human and natural history at the visitor center, explore the General Grant Tree Trail.
Peer into the Fallen Monarch, used by the U.S. Cavalry a century ago to stable horses, and Camblin Cabin, the oldest remaining structure in the park.
Then Stand Before the General Grant, the world’s second-largest tree. Declared the Nation’s Christmas Tree by president Coolidge in 1926, and a living shrine to those lost in war by President Eisenhower in 1956, the roots of this giant run deep into America’s consciousness.
After bathing in the fragrances of Grant Grove, buckle up and hit the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway. Open from May to October this incredible road snakes its way eastward, high above the Kings River. As the road descends and your grip on the steering wheel relaxes, take a breather by the cool mists of the Grizzly Falls, and Roaring River Falls.
After 30 wild, rocky miles, the road nears its end, delivering you into the lush valley floor at Zumwalt Meadow.
Wander the boardwalk around this picture-perfect Sierra meadow filled with wildflowers, berries and birdsong, as the near-vertical granite giants, North Dome and Grand Sentinel, fill the sky.
CONCLUSION
Wether it is the vastness of Zumwalt Meadow, or the giant sequoias which reach towards the heavens, no photograph, no video, no words can fully capture the sheer scale and spirit of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. This is a place that defies the limits of lens and language. A plan where, as John Muir wrote, “the snow melts into music and between every two trees is a door leading to a new life. The only way to experience this place, is to step through that door yourself.”
What are some of the best landmarks you have seen at a National Park? Leave comments and questions below.
