Canyons and Big Trees: Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks (by Jim)

Boulder playground behind our campsite

Best campsite ever! This was our thought as we rolled into the Azalea Campground in Kings Canyon National Park on May 24th. To the disappointment of 3-year-olds throughout the country, we discovered that national parks (at least the ones we have visited) do not have playgrounds. In fact, the one time we did find a playground in a park, a sign made it clear that it was for park employee residents, not visitors.  However, this campsite was magical. Huge trees shrouded in fog, two towering sugar pines standing like sentinels guarding the entrance, and behind, an entire hill filled with boulders... a natural playground of caves, ladders, and slides. Walden was in 3-year-old heaven!

This partially made up for the day before, when we drove 8 long hours from San Diego to the southern entrance of Sequoia National Park, only to find out that the lower campgrounds were completely filled for Memorial Day weekend... AND we couldn't enter in that direction with our trailer due to the steep, curvy roads. We ended up having to backtrack a couple of hours to enter the park area from the west, and stayed at a Walmart in Visalia instead from May 23-24. Perhaps this helped add to the mystique of our new campsite!

Kings Canyon and Sequoia are two separate national parks with shared borders. They are managed jointly, but still maintain unique personalities. This definitely makes the area a bit of a challenge to navigate. We had planned to stay in Sequoia National Park, but ended up staying in Kings Canyon National Park. However, our campground wasn't in "Kings Canyon" itself, but actually near a grove of Sequoia trees called Grant Grove. Grant's Grove is the sequoia grove in Kings Canyon park... not Sequoia park. Crazy!

Exploring the stumps of Converse Basin

On the first day, May 24, due to the huge Memorial Day weekend crowds, we drove just outside of the park to Sequoia National Forest (just to throw in another federal site) and visited Converse Basin, once one of the large sequoia groves in the country, but almost completely cut over. Today, there are meadows filled with massive stumps large enough for a dozen people to stand on. Walden loved climbing to the top of the stumps, climbing through hollow logs, and touching the almost neon green moss. For some reason, the loggers decided to leave one solitary sequoia tree now called the Boole Tree. We hiked a 2.5-mile trail to see it, and the tree was especially impressive since it stood alone, towering over the landscape. The base was filled with caves and tunnels burnt by fire, and we spent a long time exploring and peering up at the massive column.

Sequoia tree in Grant Grove

The next day, May 25, we walked from our campground to Grant Grove to visit the massive grove of standing sequoia trees. The giant trees are beyond words. Really, if you haven’t stood beneath a 3000+ year old tree words cannot do it justice. Their deeply furrowed reddish bark is several feet thick and feels a bit fuzzy and soft in the cracks. All the older trees have massive fire scars at the base and often there are caves large enough for several people to climb into. The fires inhibit the trees’ ability to move water and nutrients upward so the tops of the trees die and fall off but they continue to add girth. The Grant Grove is home to the General Grant Tree, the 3rd largest tree in the world (by volume) and called the "Nation's Christmas Tree." The Fallen Monarch is a massive tree that fell and became hollow, providing a neat tunnel to walk through. Even Daddy could stand up straight inside! The cavalry kept their horses here when they protected the park early on. We also hiked the North Grove Loop (1.5 miles), a much more quiet walk (the Grant Grove is at the mercy of tour buses) through a sequoia and mixed conifer forest. That afternoon, we hiked to two small waterfalls in the bluffs around Grant Grove.

Blooming dogwood on the North Grove Loop

Grizzly Falls, Sequoia National Forest

On May 26, we finally drove into Kings Canyon itself, a massive U-shaped valley carved by glaciers. The canyon is one of the deepest in the country with a maximum depth of 8,200 feet. The drive from the top of the canyon down the side to the Kings River was breathtaking. We stopped at a tall waterfall called Grizzly Falls in Sequoia National Forest before entering the park itself. Once at the bottom, we ate lunch on Muir Rock, a large boulder on the side of the King River with amazing views into the deep green water. This was, according to legend, where John Muir would give speeches about preservation. We hiked along the rushing river and through the beautiful Zumwalt Meadow (4.5 miles). We also stopped at Roaring River Falls where the water shoots out of a narrow slot in the rock. Most of Kings Canyon is wilderness area accessible only by backpacking. The diversity of this park was remarkable.

View of Kings Canyon from Zumwalt Meadow

On May 27, we drove to Sequoia National Park. Our campground happened to be conveniently located at the halfway point between the actual Kings Canyon and Sequoia. Obviously, based on the name, Sequoia National Park protects large forests of sequoia trees, including the largest tree in the world (by volume), the General Sherman Tree. It isn't the tallest tree. And it isn't the widest tree. But if you calculate the volume, it's the largest. On our drive into the park, we pulled off on the side of the road and watched a black bear cub playing with its mother on a log... very cute! Walden watched entranced with his binoculars. This was the first of MANY black bears we would see in the park. In nearly every meadow is a mother with one or more cubs. Unfortunately the bears have become habituated to people and are not afraid of people getting close with cameras.

Black bears feeding in a meadow

Sequoias along the Congress Trail

We hiked the Sherman Tree Trail to see the General Sherman Tree, and the Congress Trail (2 miles) that loops through the massive trees. With the sunlight streaming through, it was like walking through a primeval fairyland forest. We also hiked up Moro Rock, a steep 300-foot climb to the top of a granite dome with incredible views of the road snaking down into the valley (the one we couldn't drive on with the Burro) and the high snow-capped peaks of the back country area. Our final walk was around Round Meadow, just down the road from the Giant Forest Museum, which was a restored wetland that had once been surrounded by hotels, restaurants, cabins, and parking lots. Today, it is a beautiful, quiet area ringed by sequoias and filled with black bears, including an uncomfortably close encounter with a cub! And yes, we did drive a car through a sequoia tree! It was a fallen one that the CCC tunneled through in the 1930s. Walden was ecstatic!

The next day, May 28, we drove back to Sequoia since we couldn't possibly see it all in one day! We watched more bears, climbed Moro Rock again for a short interpretive talk, visited Crescent Meadow, walked a portion of the High Sierra Trail to Eagle View for a stunning vista of the mountains, and hiked the Log Meadow Trail to Tharps Log, a fallen hollowed tree in which a farmer built a small cabin and summered for 30 years. We also rushed back to the General Sherman Tree to hear another quick ranger talk.

Hiking to the top of Moro Rock

On top of Moro Rock!

Exploring Tharps Log

We were tempted to stay for several more days in the area. Both parks had so many more opportunities, and we were sad to leave our beautiful campsite. But, as we're finding with many of our stops, there will be plenty to do when we visit again in the future! On to Yosemite!