Ferns and falls compose a tranquil scene on the Hart Tree Loop (Route 31).

VISITING SEQUOIA AND KINGS CANYON NATIONAL PARKS

      At the moment you read this, snow-fed rivers pour over granite boulders within deep canyons, nourishing wildlife and flora spanning a bewildering range of habitats. The towering crown of a giant sequoia, survivor of fires and lightning strikes and witness to several millennia, sways gently in a west wind. A pristine lake nestled within a glacial basin shimmers in the crystalline high altitude. A determined hiker climbs toward a 12,000-foot (3658-m) mountain pass deep within the interior of the range. The hiker pulls deeply on the thin atmosphere while standing in awe of a vast panorama of mystifying size and scale.

      These moments illustrate the hallmarks of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks: size, variety, and the ability to impart lifelong memories. Both parks contain several groves of giant sequoias, largest of all trees by volume. Sequoia National Park contains the highest peak in the Lower 48—Mount Whitney—while Kings Canyon itself is one of the deepest canyons in the United States. Combined, the parks span an elevation range of nearly 13,500 feet (4115 m) from the summit of Mount Whitney to the Ash Mountain Entrance. Such superlative features ensure a sense of grandeur, along with one of the greatest displays of biodiversity in the country.

      Although Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks are separate entities, the National Park Service manages both parks conjointly. Combined, the two parks form one massive, sprawling mountain wonderland that also encompasses the northern unit of Giant Sequoia National Monument. Even though the combined parks contain over 800 miles (1287 km) of trail lacing through more than 860,000 acres (348,000 hectares) of mountainous terrain, most visitors explore the road-accessible destinations scattered along the parks’ two main arteries: Generals Highway and CA Highway 180/Kings Canyon Scenic Byway.

      Generals Highway begins at the Ash Mountain Entrance, east of Three Rivers, and threads a spectacular, winding ascent to the Giant Forest plateau. Generals Highway continues north through Lodgepole, Dorst Creek Campground, the Stony Creek Recreation Area, and access points to Giant Sequoia National Monument and the Jennie Lakes Wilderness before connecting with the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway just east of Kings Canyon National Park’s Big Stump Entrance. After passing through Grant Grove, the byway descends into the depths of Kings Canyon before terminating at Roads End, a popular backcountry portal. A separate road covered within this guide, Mineral King Road, winds its way to Mineral King Valley, a subalpine mountain paradise boasting trails to several stunning lake basins.

       GEOLOGY: THE RISE OF THE SIERRA NEVADA

      The story of the Sierra Nevada begins with plate tectonics. Plate tectonics theory describes the earth’s crust as a series of large moving plates that continually bump and grind against each other. This bumping and grinding shapes the surface of the earth by thrusting mountains upward, dragging valleys downward, and creating subterranean volcanic activity that creates the rocks that sometimes make their way to the earth’s surface.

       RISE UP, BATHOLITH!

      Around one hundred to two hundred million years ago, the Pacific Plate began to slide underneath the North American Plate in a process known as subduction. As the subducted Pacific Plate sank and melted