Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park Guide

Picture of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park

In the southern Sierra, within reasonable reach of the Los Angeles megalopolis, you can still find raw, roadless wilderness. While nearby Yosemite is plagued by crowds and overdevelopment, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks remain a largely unspoiled alpine realm, with high-country lakes and mountain streams, snowfields, and scores of peaks that top 13,000 feet. In short, there's enough here to satisfy a John Muir wannabe through several lifetimes of exploring. Read More »

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park Highlights

In the southern Sierra, within reasonable reach of the Los Angeles megalopolis, you can still find raw, roadless wilderness in this park. It's a largely unspoiled alpine realm, with high-country lakes and mountain streams, snowfields, and scores of peaks that top 13,000 feet.
If you've come to Sequoia and Kings Canyon to see the giant sequoias, there is no better spot to camp than Lodgepole Campground. Giant Forest and the world's biggest tree, the Giant Sherman, are only two miles away. A trail leads right out of camp to Tokopah Falls. Many sites are perched on the banks of the Marble Fork of the Kaweah River.
The park's meadows are the best areas for spotting black bears and mule deer. Bears are common from May to November. Deer generally stay in foothills during the winter and move into the middle elevations during the midsummer hot weather.
More than 200 species of birds have been seen in the park. White-headed woodpeckers, Clark's nutcrackers, Cassin's finchs are around all year long. Spring is the best time to see songbirds, including western tanagers, lzuli buntings, and black-headed grosbeaks.
Set up your tent and watch the Kings River roll by at three side-by-side campgrounds in the Cedar Grove area of Kings Canyon: Moraine, Sentinel, and Sheep Creek. Most of Cedar Grove's trails are within walking distance. The Kings River provides world-class trout fishing. Spring and fall are best at this 4,600-foot elevation; summer is too hot.

By Travel Expert: Ann Marie Brown

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks offer more than 850 miles of wilderness trails. More than 723,000 of the parks' acres are officially designated as Wilderness.
In winter, ranger-guided nature programs on snowshoes are offered at Wuksachi Lodge and Grant Grove. The park provides free snowshoes for the two-hour, one-mile walk.
Whether you're visiting for a few hours or more than a week, the park has adventure activities year-round for people of all abilities.

By Travel Expert: Karen Kefauver

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