Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks are right next to each other. In fact, the north entrance is for both parks. Sequoia was established first in 1890 to protect the magnificent trees. Kings Canyon was established in 1940. Between the two parks there are over 800,000 acres of designated wilderness. About 95 percent of the parks are not accessible by car.
The first few miles of Kings Canyon is very similar to Sequoia with the main attraction being the glorious trees. After that, as you continue on the main road, the scenery changes dramatically. Kings Canyon's largest Sequoia tree is called the General Grant. It became the second largest tree in the world after the General Washington tree was severely damaged by fire in 2003. The Grant tree is 1,700 years old, 268 feet tall, a 40 foot diameter and 107 feet circumference. It is the world's widest known Sequoia tree. It would take 20 people spread out holding hands to encircle the tree. The base would cover four full lanes of traffic. Okay, enough facts, take a look! If you click on the picture to enlarge, you can see me standing by the sign.
The back of the tree has quite a large burn scar. Many of the Sequoias have burn scars from numerous fires throughout their life span. The trees are very resistant to fire due to chemicals in their bark.
Here are some more pictures of some of the other trees in Kings Canyon.
In this next picture you can see the difference in diameter of some of the trees. They put all their energy in growing tall first, and then each year grow wider as they age. Their roots are only about five feet underground, but each tree has roots that cover the size of a football field. There is not a tap root.
We went on a ranger led walk with Mary. She was awesome and taught us a lot of the facts I'm sharing with you. She grew up in New York City and began her second career ten years ago at the age of 60 as a park ranger. How inspirational! She also taught us that the pine cones are only the size of an egg. Fire is needed for the seeds to grow.
This tree had a huge burn scar. A big part of the inside was burned, making it almost appear hollow. However, it keeps growing wider. In the second picture you can get the perspective of just how big the scar is.
This stump is called the Centennial Stump. In 1876 it was cut down to be displayed at the World's Fair in Philadelphia. A 16 foot section had to be cut into pieces to get it down the mountain and onto rail cars for transport. It was reassembled at the fair. People refused to believe it was from a single tree and called it the California Hoax.
A very winding 30 mile road took us to the bottom of the canyon where the Kings River flows. The water is amazingly clear!
The road ends at a ranger station down here. After this point, you need a backpacking permit to explore the thousands of acres of wilderness on foot or horseback. There were probably 100 cars parked down there, so lots of adventurous people out there hiking and enjoying nature.
Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!
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