Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Photo Gallery

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Some Sequoia and Kings Canyon trails are more suited to four legs than two. From the four in-park pack stations you can ride up steep, dusty trails and clomp over streams amid groves of tall trees to faraway campsites. It's a different perspective than you'd get on foot.

Horse trips range from hourly to overnight guided excursions into the backcountry. Be sure to call ahead for reservations, especially on weekends. In Mineral King, reservations are required.

The trails around the Cedar Grove Pack Station attract more hikers than horses, but you can leave most of them behind by taking off on the 21-mile Copper Creek Trail. The 5,000-foot elevation gain means switchback after switchback up hot, dry, manzanita-lined slopes. The reward: a shimmering Granite Lake.

The most popular region of the park among horse lovers is the faraway Mineral King Pack Station. The difficult two-hour drive from the highway to the trailheads discourages quite a few would-be hikers from ever making the trip. For pack trips, however, this area tops the list.

Best horse trail: Franklin Lakes. From the pack station at the very end of Mineral King Road, follow the east fork of the Kaweah River as it crosses Crystal Creek and makes its way up a steep south slope above the Franklin Creek valley. Take note of the multicolored rock on your way up to the lakes, which sits above 10,000 feet. Total distance: 10.8 miles.

Giant Forest/Lodgepole trips can be arranged at the Wolverton Pack Station. From there, head for the Twin Lakes trailhead near the Lodgepole Campground. In 13.6 miles, you'll ride through pine forests and broad meadows into glacier-cut valleys. It's a sampling of Sequoia terrain that covers almost every natural feature of the park. The lakes themselves are shallow and rimmed with pines.

At Grant Grove Stables (559-335-9292; in winter, 559-337-1273), day trips are your only option. As a gentle introduction to riding in the park, take a horse for a slow ramble around the big trees. The 2.5-mile Boole Tree Loop climbs 500 feet up a ridge, then down to the 269-foot-tall Boole Tree, one of the largest trees in the world. Because of the easy access and short distance, you can expect lots of company on this trail.