California 2025, part 2: King's Canyon

On Sunday, we had some cereal and tea and then drove the half-hour to Grant Grove in King's Canyon National Park (confusingly adjoined to Sequoia NP, but technically a separate park in some obscure sense). We watched for ice as we zig-zagged uphill, but only saw a bit of frost in the shade and small patches of snow among the trees.

We parked in a nearly empty parking lot, right in front of four giant sequoias. L, who'd pushed for this trip in the first place, had been amped all morning and was very excited to finally see them up close. We walked a looping path past more enormous trees, interspersed among more regular-sized ponderosa pines, white firs, and incense cedars, and finally came face-to-face with General Grant, the second largest tree in the world by volume.

Wildfires are a regular and even helpful occurence in this kind of forest, clearing out the undergrowth and inciting the germination of sequoia seeds. The park is still recovering from the most recent fires in 2020, and although the giant sequoias usually withstand the flames, most of the trees were scarred with black burns, and some areas were more affected than others. Grant Tree had a large black scar, and we even saw a few trees that were now just gigantic black charcoal stumps towering in the air.

After our umpteenth time saying, "Whoa, so big", we got back in the car and headed north. The road across to another part of the park was closed for the winter at Hume Lake, so we turned south along an unplowed (but almost entirely clear) road, which wound back along some hillsides and afforded incredible views of the eponymous King's Canyon and the snow-capped mountains beyond.

We parked at the visitor's center, bought a magnet and a giant sequoia germination kit, ate a quick packed lunch and sundry snacks, and walked the 4 km road up to Panaroma Point. We saw eagles, Western Bluebirds, and a funny pack of mule deer who didn't seem to be expecting out-of-season guests.

Realizing we'd missed something at Grant Grove, we parked in the now much busier lot and walked the North Loop trail, a lovely quiet path through more huge sequoias looking majestic in the slanting dappled sunlight.