Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, California

Well, unfortunately and fortunately, this great adventure did not come with easily accessible WiFi. So, we do not have regular posts here. But instead, here is a summary of this great trip. Lots of photographs and artwork to follow.

After a peaceful night of sleep in a campground, lulled to sleep by a wild river and singing crickets, we climbed the winding road toward the higher elevations of this park, the views were spectacular: snow on rocky peaks, wildflowers in bloom, and western birds singing. As we climbed higher the air smelled dry and clear and the trees got bigger. As we approached the “Giants’ Forest” we were in awe. Huge red barked sequoia trees reached up for the sky so tall we couldn’t see where they stopped. Light filtered through the canopy and gave an atmosphere of the primeval.

Pulling over by the roadside in a random spot to admire these giants gave us more of an opportunity for contemplation than stopping at the next stop – the General Sherman tree. This tree is the largest (by sheer volume) of any of the Sequoias. Given that people love to say they’ve seen “the biggest” “the tallest” “the oldest” of anything, this tree was heavily goggled at and photographed. It was impressive but so were the other “noble trees” (as John Muir called them) in this forest.

Jer and Jo (and some peeping Tom) among the Sequoias

On one beautiful morning we drove through this grove and, with the sunlight rays coming through the giant trees, there was, just waking up and soaking up some sun, a black bear. It was a beautiful picture.

There's a bear in there. Really.

The bears in this area are fairly used to people. This is not such a good situation for the people or the bears. People start to think they’re almost domestic and act stupid, like getting too close for a photo. This often leads to a bad encounter and the bear usually gets the blame for any attack. The bear might be killed because of such an encounter for fear it will attack again. But it’s the people who need to be educated on how to behave in bear country.

Mule Deer

Snakefly

One of our gorgeous high country hikes took us to an area known as Mineral King. It had once been a hotspot for the mining of silver. But the mines stopped producing and at one point the National Forest Service owned it and took bids for development. Disney almost won the bid to build a huge skiing complex in this glacial valley. Luckily, the public outcry prevented this and the area was acquired by the National Park. All I can say is “power to the people!” It is gorgeous.

We drove our rental car up and up and up a less-than-well-maintained mountain road full of hairpin turns. The road turned into dirt and we passed a ranger station at one point, then headed up to a parking area at the start of the trailhead. Wow! I thought I was in the Alps. We were in a green mountain valley at about 6,400 feet elevation surrounded by steep rocky mountain peaks. Some still had snow on them. There were long narrow cascading waterfalls coming from the high peaks down to join the river that ran through the valley. There were wildflowers everywhere and all kinds of birds. It was paradise.

Cascading Waterfall

Mineral King, mountain valley

We hiked up a trail that promised about a 1,600 foot elevation climb to a glacial lake, called Eagle Lake. We started up slowly, taking it all in. Jeremy stopped frequently to take photographs. At one point we heard a deep, resonating, periodic hum. After trying to locate it in bushes and trees, we finally saw a well camouflaged bird in a fir tree. It had a huge body and small head and moved in time with the hum so we knew it was the origin of the sound. It was a grouse and it was either telling other grouse to get lost or trying to attract a lady grouse.

We continued to climb higher and came across some deep sinkholes. These were on the map but it didn’t explain if they were natural or human made. (We knew from Colorado that miners often sunk sinkholes to find a vein of ore.) One sinkhole swallowed up a mountain stream. The hiking map said, “no one knows where it goes”. Creepy. A ranger later told us there were many marble caves under the ground and sometimes they collapsed so this might be the source of the sinkholes.

Wildflowers in bloom

We came out almost above treeline to a boulder field and were still in awe at our surroundings when I spotted a black bear above us on the rocks. Thinking it was a young one, I was anxiously looking around for Mama. We started making noise to scare it off. Ultimately, I think my top-of-my-voice rendition of “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain” made the bear decide to turn in another direction. So, let that be a lesson to anyone in bear country. Learn how to sing that song off key and nice and loud!

High Mountain Photographer, bear's perspective

Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park are right beside each other with one road leading into first one, then the other. The road ends in Kings Canyon, and then there is wilderness. As magnificently vertical the trees of Sequoia are, the amazingly horizontal surround of the treeless canyon is another breathtaker. This time we drove down, down, down the hairpin turns, avoiding lizards on the hot road, admiring the flowering yuccas on the hillsides and ending up driving along a roiling river. There’s a campground and visitor’s center down here, too, but in the summer, it is hot! We drove to the end of the road and took the 9 mile round trip trail to Mist Falls, a wide, loud waterfall spraying hot hikers with mist. A great place for lunch.

King's Canyon by the River

Mist Falls

There were many trails out from this canyon. Some went to the John Muir Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail (famous from the book/movie, “Wild”). We saw a few hikers signing up for back country permits to camp in the surrounding wilderness. On our trail we came across 3 young guys who said they had been hiking for 80 miles. They were dragging. We finished our hot hike, had showers at the privately run lodge in the canyon, and headed back up and out. The light on the walls of the glacier carved mountains was amazing and it was obvious why John Muir called this the “Range of Light”.

We were hungry for refreshment and stopped for ice cream at the one stop on this road. There had been some hand painted old “ice cream” signs on the way down. The Kings Canyon Lodge was a main building with a gas pump and a bar (and ice cream) and a bunch of rentable cabins. This building was full of dead, stuffed local wildlife that looked like it had been around since John Muir came through. The ice cream was good and the owner was grumpy.

For 10 nights we camped at a high elevation campground among the big trees. We woke up with the birds, went to bed with the smell of campfires, learned some things (or didn’t) from the rangers, and got inspired by this beautiful land. Now we’re back in New England and will start sorting through photographs and working on some artwork so we can share our explorations.

Climbing to the Buck Rock firetower

The Photographer and the Marmot

Raven and Range