I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THESE PEOPLE WERE TALKING ABOUT! Kings Canyon was SO fun, it was so different than Sequoia, and we would have missed so much had we not gone.
We drove the four hours South and head straight into Kings Canyon park. We visited first the Grant Tree, which is the third largest tree in the world by volume and the nation's Christmas tree. This is the main sequoia grove in the park, and as we headed deeper into the park, the scenery began to change as the park began to give off more of a Zion's/Canyonlands vibe.
We drove up a side road (only open in the summer) to look out over a beautiful vista point known as Panoramic Point, where we could see views of the canyon floor below, as well as Hume Lake.
We then drove about 45 minutes to get to the canyon floor and seek out Grizzly Falls. The waterfall is right off the road, and we took some time to get our feet wet in the cold mountain run off. We were concerned that the water wouldn't be flowing in the late summer, but there was definitely still a water fall.
We then went to Roaring River Falls, which required a bit more rock climbing to get down to the falls and stick our feet in. We watched several kids jump off the rocks into the water, and enjoyed cooling off in the heat of the day.
The last thing that we did in Kings Canyon, which was deep into the park (about 55 minutes from the entrance) was Zummwalt Meadows. This trail was especially cool because of the variety--you first walked over the river down to the meadow area then through rocks that looked like they came from some apocalyptic end of the world era to the area that had been burned during a forest fire. We were very glad that we went down for that trail!
We then drove the hour up the canyon and another hour down to Three Rivers, where we would stay the night to head to Sequoia National Park the next day.
On our second day, we woke bright and early to get into Sequoia National Park, which we did around 7:45 and there was 0 line. We saw Tunnel Rock before making the 50 minute ascent up winding roads (with an elevation gain of 6,000 feet) to the main area of the park.
The first trail we did was Moro Rock, which is a 400 stair climb to the vista point up top. There wasn't much of a view at the time we went up due to the sun and the inversion, but it was still fun!
We then went to see Auto Log, which visitors used to be able to drive onto, until the frequent use caused it to crack, and then to one of the most famous stops in the park, the Tunnel Log.
You can drive through this fallen Sequoia, and we were blessed that there was only one other car around. That nice man volunteered to take a bunch of pictures of us together, and so we were able to stand under and on top of the sequoia for pictures. We then had fun driving underneath.
We hiked the Crescent Meadow trail, which is currently closed due to erosion. However, my husband found a way for us to still see the beauty of the meadow along the river :)
We then headed to the most famous area of the park, the General Sherman Tree, which is the largest tree in the world by volume. This was the most crowded area of the park by far, and we were grateful to another kind soul who took our picture together (I was really concerned about not getting any pictures together due to COVID). We then hiked the 2 mile Congress trail, where we saw many more sequoia trees, including the groves of the Senate and the House trees. This was Nick's favorite part of the park, and I definitely think an underrated one, as we got a much better idea of all of the beautiful sequoias here then we did from just seeing the Sherman Tree.
After this trail, we were pretty pooped and our shoes were crusted in dirt, so we headed back the 51 minutes to the canyon floor to visit Hospital Rock, where Native American pictographs are displayed.
We then did something that was definitely the highlight of the day for me that we don't have any pictures of, and that is swimming in the river. The water was cold and refreshing after a hot day of hiking and we swam against the currents under a small waterfall and rock hopped. So fun and such a fun surprise that we never would have known about had we not heard from our Air BnB host.
What a fun trip! We highly recommend both parks to anyone :)
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