Kings Canyon National Park

Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks are right next to each other, literally. They share a border, with Kings Canyon to the north of Sequoia. I believe these are the only two parks that can make such a claim.

Despite their proximity, we chose to visit them on separate days. "Close" is a relative term when dealing with the mountains. It's easy to be 10 miles away as the raven flies and an hour away by car.

The park is centered on its namesake, the Kings Canyon through which the Kings River runs. But there is a small portion of the park dedicated to giant sequoia trees before the canyon. We ended up spending an entire morning in that portion (despite plans to go to Sequoia National Park the next day).

I'll have more to say on them when discussing Sequoia National Park, but let's just say that they are big trees. Very, very big trees.

Tree slide!

We finally reached the canyon in early afternoon. The drive down into the canyon was amazing, offering multiple overlooks down to the river, which was running strong this time of year (it apparently peters out in the fall, once the mountain snow is all melted).

We stopped for lunch at a waterfall and had way more fun than we should have feeding a colony of ants that joined us. We learned that they love ranch flavored tuna and pear juice, just in case you were curious.

After the waterfall, we did a hike... to another waterfall. This one didn't have any parking available, so what could've been a .01 mile stroll turned into a 1.5 mile hike from the next parking lot down the road. But it was well worth it. There was nothing special about the trail itself, but hiking through huge trees (these were mainly ponderosa pines, not sequoias) with canyon walls on the side next to a river isn't half bad. Also, the weather was absolutely perfect, and there were no bugs. Any hike that involves zero bugs is a win in my book.

And then a 1.5 mile hike turned into a 3 mile hike for me as I went back to retrieve the Jeep, leaving Julie and the kids (mainly the kids) to play in the water. I'll let you in on a little secret: It wasn't a burden for me to make the offer; I rather enjoyed a bit of alone time!

I returned to pick everyone up, and that was it. All we had left was to drive out of the canyon, stopping multiple times again to admire the view. On the way out we ran into a couple from a few hours north, near Sacramento. They said they'd been going to Yosemite their entire lives but had never been to Kings Canyon. They were marveling at the difference in topography just down the mountain range. Yosemite is next on the list (after Sequoia), so we'll find out soon!