Day 2: King’s Canyon National Park
If you missed the Day 1: Sequoia National Park blog, you can read it here.
Woke up actually feeling good for having hiked almost 10 miles yesterday!! Today was another big day. This time we’d be visiting King’s Canyon National Park, which adjoins Sequoia National Park. Two parks, but a WORLD of difference! The change in the ecosystems and scenery is nothing short of amazing.
The drive from Three Rivers to the bottom of King’s Canyon is about 80 miles. But the roads are so winding and narrow that it takes a good 2.5-3 hours to get there. Of course, that’s if you don’t stop along the way and of course we’re going to stop along the way! We had to drive back through the areas we visited yesterday, but now we would pass out of Giant’s Forest and into the Lodgepole area. There was road construction, which slowed us down even more. I wanted to take the cut through to Hume Lake, so we turned off. There aren’t any sequoias in this part of the park- but there are MASSIVE pine forests with MASSIVE mountains for backdrops! The Hume Lake area had an entire village in it- tons of people, little shops, etc… It is apparently a Christian camp. The lake is stunning! We saw a guy during one of our stops who had a whole net full of big trout!
After the lake, the road changed from being a road through a forest to a road hanging on to the side of the mountains! STUN. NING. Just like the camera couldn’t capture the majesty of the sequoia trees yesterday, it couldn’t capture the beauty and rugged wildness of this scenery. It was so vast, that it was difficult for your own eyes to even comprehend.
We’re heading down into the canyons on those roads faaaaar below!
As we wound down the roads, we went from Sequoia National Park into the Sequoia National Forest, and finally entered Kings Canyon National Park!
Kings Canyon is a glacier carved canyon, surrounded by stark rock mountain peaks, many of which soar to 14,000 feet! I used to come to these parks every summer with the ex and my kids. We’ve hiked so many trails and even back packed up into Paradise Valley. I haven’t been here since 2005- 15 years ago- and I know this is most likely my last ever visit….so I savored every vista. When we reached the bottom, we were greeted by the rushing King’s River. Mid-June is still pretty early in the season, and the water was swift with snowmelt. This is one of the most magical drives in the United States…..
We stopped off for our first short “hike” of the day. Really, just a quick walk up a paved trail to Roaring River Falls. Brilliant white water falling into clear green pools that swirled around boulders….magnificent!! The original plan was to hike from here, along the river to Zumwalt Meadows, do the Zumwalt loop, and hike back. That was thwarted because the forest service has done a controlled burn in the area and closed the trail. Grrrr. Oh well, we can drive to Zumwalt. Total “hike”- .32 miles. Best reward for the shortest hike ever!
So off we headed down the road to Zumwalt Meadows- probably my most favorite hike in both parks because it is a GORGEOUS loop trail AND a place where I’ve watched a momma bear and her 2 cubs play before!! I was hoping for bear luck! We parked and the Stellar Jays immediately descended on us and demanded their toll- a tasty snack treat! We gave them some cracker crumbs and they were pleased. One followed Brian around like a puppy begging for more! And the brilliant yellow Western Tiger Swallowtail butterflies were hanging out on the nearby shore getting a drink from the wet sand.
The little newspaper we had been given said that the Zumwalt trail was closed due to flooding that had destroyed the boardwalk. The sign at the trailhead didn’t say anything about it, so we took off, hoping for the best. We crossed the foot bridge over the King’s River and emerged into a forest on the other side. The trail to the right (back toward Roaring River Falls) was blocked off (because of the fire). We turned left toward Zumwalt. Walked for not very far until we reached the lush meadow!! And….the washed out boardwalk that was taped off and closed, as was the other side of the loop. This was as far as we were going to get. Not going to lie, I was pretty disappointed…. But it was hard to stay disappointed too long with the amazing scenery. We returned to the car. This hike was .91 miles, giving us a total of 1.23 for the day.
Got in the car, drove down to Road’s End just to have done it, and then headed back out of the canyon. The little gas station that has been there FOREVER was open and advertising ice cream!! We saw it on the way down and made an executive decision to stop on the way back out! The gas pumps are the oldest working double gravity pumps in the United States, having been installed in 1928!! We ordered our ice creams and sat down at the little picnic benches. The owner came over and talked to us. He repeated the same concern as the guy at the deli- no international tourism, just the locals, and he wasn’t sure they would be enough to sustain business. He had bought the place after everything burned down in 2015- 80 acres. The historic lodge had burned to the ground, and most of the cabins. The last time I was here in 2005 we had stayed at the little cabin across the road. It had been spared. He said that trying to build the business back up after that was really tough, and corona might be the nail in the coffin. This is the unspoken “death toll” across the world, and I promise it’s far, FAR higher than any actual death from the virus. Some would argue but death is forever. I would argue that losing everything you have can be just as destructive….
We left the canyon behind, but were still in Kings Canyon National Park. Next stop was Grant’s Grove to go see the Grant Tree. As this is the 2nd largest tree in the park and on an easily accessible trail, it was fairly crowded like the Sherman Tree was yesterday- but not quite as many people. We did the paved walk around it, going through a really cool tunnel through a fallen log, and then tilting our heads all the way back to see the 267 foot top of the Grant Tree. This tree is the Nation’s Christmas Tree as well.
From the Grant Tree Trail, we decided to extend our hike and do the North Grove Loop Trail. A fire had come through here and consuming many of the lodgepole pines, leaving blackening sticks pointing toward the impossibly blue skies. This loop was more of a talking hike than an “ooo” “ahh” scenery hike. We discussed our plans for Panama and tried to prioritize all of our ideas (and we came up with some new ones) to make this move and the work that has to be done as efficient as possible. Soon, we were back to the parking lot. Total for this hike, 3.02 miles, bringing today’s total to 4.25 miles. Not even half of yesterday’s total, but our legs were definitely started to feel fatigued!
It was getting late in the afternoon. I had two more hikes planned- Big Stump Trail and Tokopah Falls. But there was only going to be time for one (our legs were thrilled). We decided to do the Big Stump Trail as it was shorter and we could get down to TRI TIP sooner (yes, we were going to have tri tip again!). This is one of the saddest trails in the park, as it’s where you can see the destruction from the logging of the sequoias in the late 1800s. How anyone in their right mind could cut down one of these trees……jesus. Especially considering that the trees were so huge and so brittle that the impact of them falling would cause them to shatter- leaving about 75% of the wood unusable! Eee. Gads. It would take 2 men about 2 weeks to cut down one tree. What a waste of a living organism that had been on this earth for upwards of 2,000 years. Man- the most destructive and worthless species on the planet. This hike, our last for the day, clocked in at 1.28 miles, giving us a daily total of 5.53 miles, and a 2 day total of 15.27 miles!! Woo!! Not bad for a couch potato woman!! I will say, that all of the hikes we did were fairly flat. There are literally HUNDREDS of miles of trails in both parks. A lot of them have some serious elevation gain. At my age and level of fitness (-3), elevation gain is not in my wheelhouse anymore… But there is SO MUCH BEAUTY to be seen without taxing yourself.
Brian inside of the Shattered Giant. To me, it looks like a Gothic Cathedral….
It was time to head out of the park and get TRI TIP!!! We had a 2 hour drive out, and I felt a lot of emotions as we left the park for what I’m pretty darned sure will be my last visit ever to one of my favorite parts of the country. I have a lot of memories in this parks- both from my “old life” and now with my new one. We saw some deer on the side of the road on the way out. We never saw a bear, but we saw so many things we BEARly noticed (you didn’t think you’d get off of this blog with at least one bad pun, did ya?!). 😜
