Giant Sequoias and Kings Canyon

Giant Sequoias and Kings Canyon:

The plan to come into Sequoia NP from the south on Hwy 198 is snookered...vehicles over 24ft are not permitted to travel this route. Ours is rated 22-24ft but the rangers on duty are turning such vehicles back, so instead we take the 'scenic route, Hwy 245 via Badger and Pinehurst. If 198 is narrower and more circuitous than this, we'd like to see it! However, here we are and here we will stay...at times the road is narrower than the truck so a u-turn is an impossibility anyway!

We take elevenses near the top of 245, noting that this seems to be horse ranch country...with some very nice looking horse flesh, lunging rings, undercover training facilities, and an air of $$$'s. Some very big trees here as well - Ponderosa pines, maybe Douglas fir, and possibly Redwoods which we find later not to be the case...there are no Redwoods in these two NP's as they are confined to the Pacific coastal strip; there are only Sequoias on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada range in California.

Entering the Kings Canyon NP on Hwy 180 from the west at the appropriately named Big Stump Entrance, we make our way south to the adjoining Sequoia NP and Lodgepole Campground. Fall is not the best time of year for river flow and waterfalls, and this has been a particularly dry summer, coming as it does after 10 years of drought, so the 5km walk up a steep trail to Tokopah Falls must be seen as exercise for the body and the imagination - how must the dribble of water we see look in spring, or better still, after a 'normal' seasonal progression? We meet our first sequoias along this trail...we now have some idea why they are called the Giant Trees, and these are not so big.

A wonderful overview of the 'sublime wilderness' explorer John Muir saw on his first visit is from the top of Moro Rock, a granite dome with a steep, sometimes narrow, staircase (350+ steps) which rises 300ft to look out over the tops of trees, most of which are 200+ft tall and many are hundreds of years old. The opposite view is down the Kaweah River valley with the notorious Hwy 198 winding its way ever upward.

As we make our way from trailheads in any particular direction, we find beautiful meadows nestled in sheltered glens, maybe lakes in a previous life; a "squatter's" cabin, so named because the man who built it, unaware that a claim already existed on the land, had to walk away, leaving a 'legacy' as a squatter; we walk through areas of recent 'prescribed burns' where the understory has been cleared and the heat of the fire has scorched the big trees and opened the pine cones high above to allow the seed to drop on fertile, now clear, ground and so regenerate this great forest. As many as 200 seeds can fall from one cone. Because their thick bark insulates them from most wildfires, and chemicals in the wood and bark provide resistance to bugs and parasitic growths, the main cause of sequoia death is 'toppling'...they have a shallow root system with no tap root so soaking rain and strong winds can cause their downfall.

Should note that the larvae of the cone-boring beetle and squirrels are helpful in opening the cones after they have hung on the tree for around 20 yrs, but fire is the key.

While we are excited to see SO many giant trees, no visit to this National Park is complete without viewing what is generally accepted as the world's largest tree - the General Sherman Tree. Vital statistics: 275ft tall, its trunk weighs an estimated 1,385 tons and at ground level, it is nearly 103ft around; about 2,200 yrs old, the largest branch is almost 7ft in diameter, and every year it grows enough new wood to produce a 60ft tree of normal size. This tree also marks the start of the Congress Trail - groups of trees with names like the Senate Group, the House Group, and individuals called President, McKinley, Washington...in honour of the people and particularly the Congress of the US without which there would be no security for these wonderful, wild places, for only Congress can enact the establishment of a National Park.

Back to Kings Canyon NP and Azalea Campground at Grant Grove for a different experience...a drive eastward along Kings Canyon Scenic Byway as it follows the South Fork Kings River into the deep canyon. The variety is very obvious - big trees give way to smaller shrub-like vegetation in a rain-shadow; Yucca Point is typically arid, and well named for the almost bare landscape and yuccas in all stages, from young plants to those that have flowered but are still holding long stems even though the plant appears to be dead. In fact, offshoots or 'pups' will regenerate from the roots. The narrow road winds its way through the canyon, following the river course with little room for the fly fishermen to park, or for vehicles to pass without taking great care...we 21st century folk can't quite believe that over millions of years, this same river has run its course and has shaped this landscape, and more remarkably, continues to do so. Grizzly Falls, an interesting name for a landmark in an area where there are no grizzly bears, makes a gallant effort to produce enough water to send a cascade of sparkling mountain water tumbling onto rocks about 20m below...and a most acceptable place to have lunch.

The settlement of Cedar Grove - a Lodge, campground, car park and Visitor Centre - has closed for the season...everything is shuttered or boarded up awaiting the first snowfall, so we turn back and return the along the same (the only!) route to the Princess Campground where a secondary paved road leads to Hume Lake, a water storage which is under the authority of the US Forest Service. There is a public campground at one end of the lake and at the other is a huge Christian Camp called Camp Ponderosa. All the land at this end of the lake is owned by a church organisation...the general public has access to the general store which also has gas for sale, a small cafe, row boats, paddle boats and canoes for hire, all of these being owned and operated by the Camp; the public restrooms are operated and maintained by the Forest Service. The camp facilities are quite grand - a dining and meeting complex, a conference facility, a swimming pool, accommodation in small self-contained cabins, and a large chapel. We spend a little time sitting by the lake before continuing on this quite pretty drive through the forest to rejoin the General's Highway at Quail Flat, south of Grant Grove Village.

Short historical note: Sequoia NP was created on September 25, 1890. A week later Congress tripled its size and created General Grant NP to protect Grant Grove. In 1893 more lands in the Sierra Forest were protected and in 1893, Kern Canyon was added to Sequoia NP. In 1940, General Grant NP was merged with the newly created Kings Canyon NP and since 1943 Sequoia and Kings Canyon have been jointly managed.

Grant Grove takes its name from General Ulysses S Grant and the giant sequoia called the Grant Tree is dedicated to all those who served and died in conflict. It is designated as "The Nation's Christmas Tree." A 'renovated' pioneer cabin is nearby and a fallen sequoia, lying where it fell, has been hollowed out by an enterprising settler and used as a house at one time.

There is no evidence that "The Nation's Christmas Tree" has ever been actually used in celebration...it's a long way up for the person who gets to put the angel at the top!

Now we leave the giant trees, briefly retrace our steps on Hwy 180, resist the challenge of Hwy 245, and continue out of Kings Canyon NP, out of Sequoia National Monument, out of Sequoia National Forest, and into the valley of grapes and orange groves.