Roland Sturm: Kings Canyon Before Winter Closure

I got a last Sierra overnight in before the winter closure, this time Kings Canyon NP from the western endbecause CHP would close Highway 180 to Road's End on Monday morning (i.e today). Except for maybe the long darkness, conditions were great. No snow yet, pleasantly cool (summers can be too hot), no bugs (another summer problem), and not too cold at night (around freezing). I went up the South Fork of Kings River, which is the typical direction for people doing the full Rae Lakes loop, camped in Paradise Valley and hiked back down the next day.

Plenty of bears out, I saw 4 on the first afternoon already.

While I do not take spectacular photographs, only Iphone point and click, take it from the original Yosemite advocate that Kings Canyon is as spectacular: "the trail in ascending the western flank of the range leads through a forest of the giant Sequoias, and through the magnificent Kings River Valley, that rivals Yosemite in the varied beauty and grandeur of its granite masonry and falling waters." Muir, John. The Complete Works of John Muir (p. 24). Madison & Adams Press.

Kings Canyon National Park is adjacent to Sequoia National Park in California's Sierra Nevada mountains and the two are administered jointly. While best known for huge sequoia trees, including the gigantic General Grant Tree in Grant Grove, my favorite part is further east, after the road ends: the high mountain peaks, lakes, meadows, rivers. It is literally and figuratively up from Road's End.

It started as General Grant National Park to protect the small area of giant sequoias. John Muir emphasized the huge wilderness area to the east, but it took more than fifty years for the rest of Kings Canyon to be designated a national park. The fight between various groups (especially hydroelectric dams and LA city again) continued until 1965, when the Cedar Grove and Tehipite Valley were finally annexed into the park. Partly for that reason, Kings Canyon National Park has two distinct sections. The smaller and older western section centers around Grant Grove and the park's sequoias, and has most of the visitor facilities. The trees are great, of course, but always too crowded for me, even in November. I stopped on the way, but left quickly.

The larger eastern section, which accounts for the majority of the park's area, is almost entirely wilderness, and contains the deep canyons of the Middle and South Forks of the Kings River. Cedar Grove is the only access point by road from the west (Highway 180). I have more often entered the park from the east, like Kearsarge Pass. That trailhead (Onion Valley) is about 4 hours/240 miles from Santa Monica whereas Cedar Grove is 5 1/2 hours/270 miles. But the initial going is harder from the east because every pass into Kings Canyon is over 3400m.

In contrast, Cedar Grove is already in Kings Canyon and at 1400m and the elevation gain is fairly gradual along the South Fork of Kings River or Bubbs Creek, compared to the eastern approaches.

Eventually, of course, you end up in the same spots and Kings Canyon has some extremely steep vertical relief with many peaks over 4000m, a few (like Palisades) even over 4300m/14,000 feet. At the sign, just before the first bridge, I went left. That would be the clockwise (more popular) direction of doing the Rae Lakes loop. Straight/right would be going up Bubbs Creek.

During the summer, these trails will be packed. And down here, it will also be hot. But mid-November was fairly empty. I saw a few day hikers between the parking lot and Mist Falls, but then nobody anymore. Seeing as many bears as people is a good balance!