Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Mike White
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of the deepest canyons in North America. Interpretive signs help to identify the distant snow-clad peaks rising above these deep holes, which provide the headwaters for these two forks of the Kings River. Closer at hand to the northeast is Buck Rock Lookout.
Quail Flat Junction: The major junction at Quail Flat provides access to a variety of destinations. The narrow, dirt road on the left leads 1.7 miles to Redwood Saddle, where trails access Redwood Mountain Grove, the largest giant sequoia grove on the planet, where thousands of giant sequoias thrive in the drainages and hillsides of aptly named Redwood Mountain (see Trips 59–60).
Paved Tenmile Road to the right leads to Tenmile and Landslide Campgrounds, and Logger Flat and Aspen Hollow Group Campgrounds, on the way to Hume Lake. The lake offers swimming at Sandy Cove, picnicking at Powder Can, and camping at Hume Lake Campground. Hume Lake Christian Camps above the southwest shore has a general store with gas pumps, a snack shop, gift shop, and boat rentals available to the general public.
From Quail Flat, FS Road 14S02 leads to remote giant sequoia groves, including the Kennedy Meadows Trailhead and Evans Grove (see Trip 56).
Redwood Canyon Overlook: A pullout on the left-hand side of the highway offers a wide-ranging view of the Redwood Mountain Grove. Careful observation soon reveals the characteristically round crown of giant sequoias, which differs from the tops of its usual associates—white firs, incense cedars, and sugar pines. More than 15,000 specimens of giant sequoia larger than one foot in diameter, along with tens of thousand younger sequoias, call the grove home.
Kings Canyon National Park boundary: At 0.3 mile from the overlook, the Generals Highway forsakes the national forest land present on the right-hand side for the last few miles and now travels wholly within Kings Canyon National Park.
Y-junction with Kings Canyon Highway: Although the Generals Highway technically continues another 2.8 miles to the General Grant Tree, for our purposes the road log for the Generals Highway ends at the Y-junction with Kings Canyon Highway. A left turn at the junction will lead shortly out of the park beyond the Big Stump Entrance and toward Fresno. A right turn will continue through Grant Grove and ultimately into Kings Canyon proper.
Kings Canyon Highway Road Log
Kings Canyon Highway provides the lone vehicular access into its namesake canyon, dead-ending at aptly named Roads End. State Highway 198 proceeds eastbound from Fresno across the broad plain of the San Joaquin Valley before climbing through the foothills zone and into the mid-elevation forests to the Big Stump Entrance into Kings Canyon National Park. The 40-mile journey from the Big Stump Entrance to Roads End requires a minimum of an hour to complete without stops along the way, as the curvy road winds down into the canyon. Kings Canyon Highway is usually open beyond the Hume junction from late April to mid-November.
Since most motorists approach Kings Canyon from the Fresno area via Highway 180, this road log begins at the west boundary of Kings Canyon National Park.
Kings Canyon National Park boundary: Highway 180 climbs out of the San Joaquin Valley up the west slope of the Sierra and enters national parkland.
Big Stump Entrance Station: The old entrance station was removed in 2005 due to the high probability of an old sequoia tree toppling onto the site and was temporarily relocated to the Big Stump Picnic Area parking lot.
Big Stump Picnic Area: Hopefully, this picnic area, which served as the temporary entrance station, will be refurbished when the new entrance station opens, with restrooms and picnic tables available to the public. In winter, Big Stump has been also used as a snow play area. A short nature trail loop through Big Stump Grove attracts tourists, while a longer 2-mile loop and a trail to Hitchcock Meadow offer a bit more solitude (see Trips 61–62).
Y-junction with Generals Highway: Here the Generals Highway heads south through the western finger of Kings Canyon National Park and across Giant Sequoia National Monument to the north part of Sequoia National Park. Kings Canyon Highway continues ahead toward Grant Grove.
Wilsonia: On the right-hand side of the highway, a road heads into a private inholding within Kings Canyon National Park, filled mainly with rustic cabins. The first official step toward the establishment of a national park occurred in 1880, when Theodore Wagner, US Surveyor General for California, suspended four square miles of Grant Grove, prohibiting any interested parties from filing a land claim. Unfortunately, a 160-acre claim had already been filed adjacent to the area. Subsequent efforts to buy the land were unsuccessful, leading to the privately owned Wilsonia area you see today.
Sunset Campground: Sunset Campground on the left is the first of the campgrounds in the Grant Grove area. It is open from late May to September.
Grant Grove Village: Grant Grove is the main hub of services within Kings Canyon National Park. Facilities include a visitor center, restrooms, lodging, restaurant, general store, gift shop, post office, and public showers. A number of hiking trails emanate from the area as well (see Trips 63–67).
Grant Tree Road and Crystal Springs Road: A mere 0.2 mile from the entrance to Grant Grove Village is an intersection with the Grant Tree Road on the left and the Crystal Springs Road on the right. The Grant Tree Road travels 0.75 mile to a large parking lot (restrooms) near the start of the nature trail loop around the General Grant Tree (see Trip 66). This road also accesses the Azalea and Swale Campgrounds and the trailhead for the North Grove (see Trip 65).
The Crystal Springs Road leads to Crystal Springs Campground and John Muir Lodge in the Grant Grove area before continuing roughly northeast to the parking lot for the short walk to Panorama Point (see Trip 67).