USA Guide
California
Kings Canyon National Park
Kings Canyon National Park is wilder and less visited than Sequoia, with a maze-like collection of canyons and a sprinkling of isolated lakes – the perfect environment for careful self-guided exploration. To reach the canyon proper, you have to pass through the hamlet of Grant Grove, where there's a useful visitor center (daily: June– Aug 8am–6pm; rest of year 9am–4.30pm) and the 2.5-mile Big Stump Trail shows off the remains of the logging that took place in the 1880s. Several massive trees from these parts were sliced up and sent to the Atlantic seaboard to convince cynical easterners that such enormous trees really existed. A mile west of Grant Grove, a large stand of sequoias contains the General Grant and Robert E. Lee trees, which rival the General Sherman in size.
Kings Canyon Highway (Hwy-180; May– Oct only) descends from Grant Grove into the steep-sided Kings Canyon, cut by the furious gushings of various forks of the Kings River. Its wall sections of granite and gleaming blue marble, and the yellow pockmarks of blooming yucca plants (May and early June, in particular), are magnificent. A word of warning: don't be tempted by the clear waters of the river; people have been swept away even when paddling close to the bank in a seemingly placid section.
Once into the national park proper, the canyon sheds its V-shape and gains a floor. Cedar Grove Village here is named for its proliferation of incense cedars. There's a ranger station across the river (mid-June to Aug daily 9am–5pm; May & Sept hours reduced). Apart from the scenery, you should look out for the flowers – leopard lilies, shooting stars, violets, lupins, and others – and birdlife, too. Wander around the green Zumwalt Meadow, four miles from Cedar Grove Village, which spreads beneath the forbidding gray walls of Grand Sentinel and North Dome.
Just a mile further on, Kings Canyon Road comes to an end at Copper Creek. Beyond, the multitude of canyons and peaks that constitute the Kings River Sierra are networked by hiking paths, almost all best enjoyed armed with a tent, provisions, and a wilderness permit from the trailhead ranger station.