Apr 29, 2013 - King's Canyon National Park

Today we drove Hwy 180 from the campground to "Road's End"  where the wilderness trails begin--about 35 miles.  We would both have loved to strap on packs and head out into the wilderness, but we're just not up to sleeping on the ground any more, much less of carrying 35 pounds or so on our backs up steep mountain trails.  But it was fun to think about. The road through the canyon started out high above the King's River where the valley was wide and U-shaped from being cut by glaciers during the last ice age.  As we went down, down, down...

Apr 13, 2013 - Kings Canyon National Park

Kings Canyon was a challenge because it is too early to get to 95% of the park. It is a back country camping and hiking park in which to see it's best features you must drive deep into the park and then hike several days in. A small part of the park was assessable to us and we went to see what we could. The entrance to the park is above 5,000 ft and drive up was winding and exciting, with steep dropoffs as we climbed to the entrance. The park is the home to the second largest living tree, the "General Grant" sequoia. We drove as far as we...

Aug 4, 2012 - Kings Canyon National Park

Today we are going to Kings Canyon National Park. The ranger from yesterday told us a different road to take so we didn’t have to drive all the way through Sequoia National Park to get there. The road was certainly less traveled but it sure was not any straighter or wider. It had a lot of 10 mph switchbacks and narrowed down to one lane in many places. We were on it for almost an hour before we saw another person. Most of Kings Canyon is inaccessible by road. In the two parks there are 842 miles of trails, many that traverse through the...

May 21, 2012 - Kings Canyon (Day 4) - Visiting General Grant

(Ron Writing) We enjoyed another day of perfect weather here at Kings Canyon - Temperature in the high 60’s, no wind, only a few high thin clouds. This afternoon we took a short hike over to Grant Grove and then walked the trails through the grove to view the General Grant tree and many of his “lieutenants”. It’s a beautiful grove but just imagine what it could be like. What’s left of the giant sequoias in this area is just a very little patch of what was once a huge grove of these majestic trees. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s over...

May 20, 2012 - Kings Canyon (Day 3) - Relaxing Day at Home

(Ron Writing) We spent a quiet day at home enjoying the beautiful weather and our beautiful surroundings. Most of the campsites emptied out again today as the weekenders left. We did take a walk over to the visitor center to look at the exhibits and did a quick walk through the gift shop. This afternoon we gathered up some firewood and had a nice campfire to enjoy and also used it to cook our dinner. Had roasted mixed veggies, chicken, and a version of s-mores for dessert. Ours had graham crackers, peanut butter, chocolate chips and mini...

May 19, 2012 - Kings Canyon (Day 2) - Driving Tour

(Ron Writing) The weather was beautiful again today so we decided to get out and enjoy it. We drove about 35 miles east on Hwy 180 all the way to where it ends at Zumwalt Meadow. This is an extremely scenic drive – perhaps the most scenic drive one can take down into a canyon in the USA. From our campground at 6,500’ the highway first climbs to 7,000’ before starting a steep winding descent into the very rugged canyon of the south fork of the Kings River. There are long sections of the highway that are little more than a notch carved in the...

May 18, 2012 - Kings Canyon NP - We Found Cool Weather

(Ron Writing) After breakfast we left Porterville heading north on CA-65, and then jogged west on CA-198 to Visalia where we stopped at Costco for gas. We continued north on CA-63 and then east on CA-180. Highway 180 climbs out of the valley up to Kings Canyon National Park. Just a couple miles past the entrance station is the visitor center at Grant Grove Village. We pulled into the Azalea Campground ($9/night, no hook-ups, senior rate) at Grant Grove. We’ve stayed here many times over the years and it’s become our favorite campground in...

Aug 24, 2010 - Kings Canyon National Park

Guess I had better stop being lazy and fill you in like I promised a few days ago… We had a nice week in Fresno and was just starting to find our way around when it was time to leave but first; We had signed up to have someone come and wash our Big Sky after the thick layer of dust and sand we got on it at our last stop… We waited a couple of days longer then promised but the weather was so hot that we could understand why things were slowing down… I know we both slow down a lot in 100 degrees… Well they finally came and we decided that it...

Jul 30, 2010 - On to Kings Canyon National Park

We were about 50 miles from Kings Canyon National Park and had an early start to see it all. This park is entirely different from Sequoia NP even though there are sequoia trees in the park. Most of the park is wilderness in the high Sierra with Mt. Whitney - the highest peak in the lower 48 states at over 14,000 feet. We drove to the end of the road in the park and saw wonderful open views of the granite canyons and swift running snow melt King River. Micheal had to feel the water so he did a little wading--see the photos. No bears today...

Jun 29, 2010 - Garden Grove, CA - Back For a Few Days

(Ron Writing) It was much warmer when we got up Sunday morning than it had been on other mornings. We had a relaxing morning and left our campsite at about noon. Dallas and Alice stopped over to see our "mini-mansion" and we had another short visit before they took off for home. We drove as far as Bakersfield where we are spent the night parked at Sam’s Club. It was hot in the valley today. At 5 PM when we got to Sam’s Club it was 103°. We fired up the generator and ran the AC which quickly cooled the house down to the mid 70’s with no...

Jun 26, 2010 - Kings Canyon NP (Day 7) - Relaxing Day at Home

(Elena Writing) It’s a good thing that we decided to stay home today. The campground is just about filled up with weekenders and the parking spaces at the visitors center were nearly all taken when we went to use the WiFi. Ron caught up with some reading and I baked three new “light” recipes. I converted a blueberry muffin recipe into a cake, made Triple Chocolate Cookies, and Cinnamon-Spice Chocolate Brownies which has eight teaspoons of cayenne pepper however I thought it could use a bit more. I also added instant espresso to the latter...

Jun 25, 2010 - Kings Canyon NP (Day 6) - Panoramic Point

(Ron Writing) This afternoon we drove a few miles up a narrow, steep, winding road to Panoramic Point. From the parking lot we took a short steep trail to the viewpoint. The sky was a little hazy and there were heavy clouds on the horizon but still the view of the Sierra Nevada wilderness area and its tall snow covered peaks was spectacular. From the viewpoint we headed hiked on a trail that leads to a fire lookout tower about 2.5 miles away. We went about 3/4 of the way before we decided to head back. The trail was quite steep in places...