Kings Canyon National Park

Following Zion we stopped in Las Vegas to have a quick look. The first night we went to the ‘strip’ for a look. If Singapore has shops, Vegas has slot machines. It’s hard to walk far without seeing the things. Fiona and Rob can think of nothing more pointless than gambling and did a tour that included the water fountains and wonderland at Bellegio, birds at Flamingo and French themed hotel, Paris. symi liked the fountains and animals but was generally not a fan of Vegas either. Unfortunately due to a high wind forecast (winds to 60mph) we stayed another night - high winds and RVs don't mix. We took the opportunity to do a buffet ($11 each) at the Sam’s town Casino that we were staying at. It was very meat orientated and Rob tried to taste as many ribs as possible. During the night the wind howled confirming the decision not to drive.

The next day (not much of a Mother's day for Fiona) we braved the subsiding wind and drove to Bakersfield. From Vegas there’s not much but dessert. A few points of interest being the solar energy generation just across the California border. It’s the largest solar thermal power plant in the world. At Mojave we drove past the aircraft boneyard, where planes go to die. We were intrigued about all the planes in the middle of nowhere and ‘googled’. Also Spaceship One was developed here. After Mojave the road climbs over a pass and finally we left the dessert into some green hills with trees.

Grant Grove, fallen Sequoia

After a stop for the night at Bakersfield we continued north on the Interstate 99 through the ‘Valley’ region of California. It’s basically flat and very agricultural. It’s also very populated with endless small towns and moderate sized farms that appear all a bit run down. Leaving the flat (at 500 ft elevation) at Orange Grove begins the surprisingly large climb to 6500ft at Kings Canyon NP. This would be a great driving road, just not in an RV! Kings Canyon has the advantage of campground availability, its neighbour Sequoia NP is reservation only at this time of year and full. The first two nights we camped at Grant Grove. On arrival we did the short walk to the visitors centre and had some bear education. The main thing we learnt was the local Black Bear is not aggressive and their scat is big compared to the other

Dead Giant

animals like Mule Deer. We started to see plenty of bear scat, some very fresh, over the next few days. Some were keen to see a bear, others maybe not so keen! We also learnt that Kings Canyon at Cedar Grove looked very impressive. One of the frustrations in planning the NP trips is getting good information, there is always plenty more information on the ground. We followed the trip to the visitors centre with a short walk to the General Grant tree, the second largest (by volume) tree in the world. We pondered the 2 000 year age of the tree and how much history the tree had lived through.



Birthday Champagne and cake

The following day was Fiona’s birthday. Following the typical morning of school work we went for a great walk through more giant Sequoia trees, ending at the Dead Giant. We then enjoyed a great birthday celebration with a bottle of Champagne, Salmon and a dessert of red velvet cake cooked by Symi.

Overlooking Kings Canyon, the valley right is toward Cedar Grove

Next day, Wednesday, we moved to Cedar Grove campground, another with no reservations and plenty of availability. The drive there was spectacular with some views of the North and South Fork of the Kings River. The road in dropped back to 3 500ft before following the South Fork

Zumwalt Meadow

Kings River through a very tight and tall canyon. The campground was one of the best yet and we scored a great campsite via the river. That afternoon we rode the six miles to the road end taking in a walk to River Road falls and around the beautiful Zumwalt meadow. We met a couple who had just seen a bear, but we only saw some very fresh scat.

Cedar Grove Lookout, campground directly below

Thursday we went up the Hotel Creek trail ascending 1400 ft to the Cedar Grove Overlook for a grand view of Kings Canyon. The ascent was steep and strenuous involving many switchbacks. At one point we stopped for a photo, Rob failing to notice the rattle snake sunbaking on the trail a few feet away! After the overlook was the scenic walk through an open yellow pine forest meadow before descending the Lewis Creek Trail. We were all tired on return having completed about 15km.

Above Mist Fall

After a rest day we drove to road end and walked up to Mist Falls. The canyon here is narrow and steep and the Kings River falls rapidly producing an endless roar from the constant white water. After the falls we became ambitious and continued higher towards Paradise Valley. Turning around eventually and descending produced amazing views down the valley. However attention was frequently at our feet with three snake sightings on the descent, two Californian King Snakes and another Rattle Snake (we were thinking of how much Barbs would love this walk!!).  We decided to make the walk even longer by going back by the Kanawyer loop trail. This involved crossing a few creeks with only small logs to balance on. There was some great open meadow, great for bear spotting and one mile from the end we saw our first Black Bear about 30m away. The bear was totally unbothered by us and very casually walked up the hill. We watched the bear as long as we could, initially too mesmerised to grab the camera. All up this walk was 20km, Symi’s biggest yet!

Black Bear!

Kings Canyon was fantastic, the scenery is rated as comparable to Yosemite without the crowds. We met some locals who had been coming here for years, we were able to pick their brains on their favourite locations further north where we are heading, including for Yosemite our next stop.