Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

Last week Friday, I intended to first visit Kings Canyon National Park about an hour away from Fresno in the Sierra Nevada Mountains then continue south to Sequoia National Park a little further away. A few miles from the entrance of Kings Canyon, however, an auto accident barricaded the road indefinitely. Not one to wait around, I turned my wheels south and drove two hours to the entrance of Sequoia National Park, starting my day of exploration there.

The General Sherman Highway, the park's lone thoroughfare, climbs high into the grey granite peaks crowned by giant Sequoia trees. After squeezing out on Moro Rock, a bald escarpment of stone offering stretching views of the Great Western Divide, I visited the General Sherman tree, the largest living thing on earth. It's neither the tallest nor the widest Sequoia, but it is the most massive overall. The next morning I visited the General Grant tree in Kings Canyon National Park. It is the widest known tree and the third biggest living thing on earth.

Friday afternoon I drove the parks' steep twisted roads through more mountains then down into a rugged valley. Kings Canyon was carved through the Sierra Nevadas by the South Fork of the Kings River and called "grander" than Yosemite Valley by John Muir. I disagree, but the blue, white, and grey walls splattered with pine green have their own lonely, chaotic magic. I camped in the canyon overnight, unsure of my destination the next morning.