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Hiking in King's Canyon |
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King’s Canyon is a National Park located in the heartland
of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, just a five hour drive
from the urban sprawl of Los Angeles. It’s actually made
up of 2 parks: King’s Canyon and Sequoia National Park.
Together cover 862,000 square miles of breathtakingly beautiful
scenery, where you can find some of the best backcountry trekking
on the west coast. King’s Canyon – Sequoia is also
home to the world’s largest living thing – the giant
Sequoia tree.
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Our Journey Path (as featured
in Treks in a Wild World)
Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park is situated in Central
California, north west of the Mojave Desert. For Los
Angeles-based Cristina LaMonica it’s a trekking treasure
just 5 hours from home. Entering the Sequoia National Park
at the western Ash Mountain entrance, Cristina heads
out with her guide toward Moro Rock, where she stops
off to see the incredible giant sequoia groves. From there
she hikes north into King’s Canyon National Park,
on to Lookout Peak and descends into Kings Canyon.
Heading due east along the Bubb’s Creek Trail,
Cristina climbs five thousand feet through the Kearsarge
Pass and crosses over the crest of the high Sierra
Nevadas.
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Cristina LaMonica's journey route
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Highlights
- Visiting the General Sherman Tree. At 52,500 cubic
feet, this is the largest living thing in the world.
- Paying a visit to Moro Rock, where 19th century ecologist
John Muir gave lectures to his students. His ideas about the
relationship between human beings and nature spawned the modern
ecology movement.
- If you’re the solitary type, hiking for days without
seeing a soul. However, with over 800 miles of trails throughout
the park, it’s easy to get lost so make sure you take
a map or better still, go with a guide. |
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Survival Tips
- There are 800 miles of trails that wind through Kings Canyon
and Sequoia National Parks, taking in some of the most pristine
and spectacular alpine scenery in the United States. With
such a vast network of trails in the Sierras it’s easy
to get lost, so if you’re planning a multi-day backcountry
trek consider hiring a guide.
- Wilderness permits are required for all overnight trips
and are available at the ranger station nearest your trailhead.
You’ll also receive an NPS map of the park.
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Cristina and her guide check their co-ordinates
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Did you know?
- Besides being the tallest living thing on the planet, the
Sequoia tree can live for up to three thousand years.
- Fire is a natural part of the Sierra Nevada. Seqouia Forests
need the heat of the fires to release the seeds from the cones
and open up the forest canopy so that sunlight can reach the
young seedlings. The trained fire crews carefully plan the
size and timings of the fires, which gets rid of the undergrowth
of deadwood that can actually lead to devastating wild fires. |
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- King’s Canyon and Sequoia National Parks are also
great places to visit in the winter. Both Grant Grove and
Giant Forest areas of the parks offer snowshoeing and
cross-country skiing on marked trails.
- The Sierra Nevada mountain range is the longest
mountain range in the continental USA, stretching four hundred
miles and 60 to 80 miles wide. The Sierra Nevada acts as a
massive barrier along most of eastern California. It joins
the southern end of the Cascade mountains just north of Lake
Tahoe, stretching all the way down to the Mojave Desert
in the south of the state.
- The Southern end of the Sierra Nevada range is where you’ll
find its highest peaks, including Mount Whitney. At
14, 497 feet, this is the highest mountain in the continental
USA. |
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A giant Sequoia tree in King's Canyon
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