July 18
The view of Kings Canyon NP was hampered by brownish air. Advisories went out today about air quality. This was worse than yesterday in Sequoia. Anything past a couple miles and haze made for poor photos. It was like having 40/40 vision. The reason I was viewing the canyon from a lofty roadway was that the NPS has closed the one road which takes visitors into the heart of the backcountry. The geological feature for which a park is named after should at least be open for travel and hiking, no? But the road through the canyon and the Cedar Grove area will be closed for the year due to safety issues. Granted, safety is important. Also, the Redwood Mountain Grove road, which goes to a large section of Sequoia trees, was closed. This left only the Grant Grove and Big Stump Grove areas open for vehicle access. But repaving of the parking lots in both locations has knocked out a bunch of vehicle spots. Thankfully, the Grant Grove area has the General Grant tree, the third largest tree in the world. As Sequoia NP has General Sherman, Kings Canyon has General Grant. This is one tree everyone wants to see.
It is easy to see that the General Grant tree dwarfs its neighbors. Many are very mature and get close to the 268 feet height, but just not as big in diameter. A loop path takes one around a number of the trees. One behemoth had fallen many years ago. Over time the core has disappeared, making for a tunnel of sorts which visitors walk through.
A stump remains of the Centennial Tree. The tree was cut in 1875 so sections could be sent to the Philadelphia Centennial of 1876, to prove to people trees of this size existed. Many on the east coast felt stories of redwood giants were mere story tales, and called the exhibit a “California Hoax”. A sign at the stump says two men required nine days to fell the Sequoia. Later on, women from a nearby logging camp would hold Sunday School classes on the stump.
I headed to the Buena Vista Trail, which is halfway up route CA 198 to the boundary with Sequoia NP. There is a couple mile section of this road, called the Generals Highway, on which the west side is Kings Canyon NP managed by the NPS while the east side is Sequoia National Forest, administered by the US Forest Service. Various signage on the road indicated who “owned” what. I just laughed. The trail takes one to a 360 degree view of the area. But again, due to the haze, it was hard to enjoy the scene. Next stop was the Big Stump loop trail at the Big Stump picnic area. You can see stumps which remain after trees were cut down. Hopefully this makes your stomach turn, so we learn not to damage Nature in the future. Now all these majestic trees are saved by Congressional decree, though we do have to mitigate potential wildfires, like the KNP from 2021.