Beginner’s Guide to Kings Canyon
An intro to the Grant Grove and Cedar Grove Districts
Essentials
- Type of trip: Weekender (depart Friday after work, return Sunday afternoon)
- Drive time from San Francisco: ~4–4.5 hours to the park entrance, an additional 30–45 minutes to Cedar Grove/Road’s End.
- Difficulty and total mileage: Varies. Kings Canyon is a large national park with multiple districts. This post focuses on Grant Grove and Cedar Grove, the two districts closest to SF.
- Crowds: We visited the park in early June and saw light crowds.
- Temperatures: Varies with season; we recommend visiting May–September after the snow melts. Expect daytime temps around 70°F and lows near 50°F. It’s important to note that the canyon is quite deep, so the exact weather can vary greatly depending on where you are in the park (canyon floor vs a mountain peak).
- Permits: Required for all overnight backpacking trips. You can apply to reserve a permit in advance for the busy season (May–September) online through the NPS. You can also see which trailheads still have permits available here.
- Bears/threatening wildlife: Bears are active in the area, so be sure to bring a bear canister and properly store your food.
- Water situation: Depends on the trail, but the Kings River runs through the center of the park, with numerous other streams along the way
- Fire situation: Fires and camp stoves are allowed; check current fire restrictions before your trip.
Prep
Gear: Check out my temperate climate backpacking checklist for a recommended set of stuff to bring for this trip.
Food: We recommend bringing non-freeze-dried food, especially since your first night will be car camping. Our favorite camping hack is to prepare breakfast burritos and carne asada burritos in advance, wrap them in foil, and then reheat them in the coals of the fire.
Campground accommodations: For Friday night, reserve a spot at Sunset Campground, which is right at the park entrance. There are numerous campgrounds throughout the park (full list here). We camped both nights at Sunset, though we found that it was crowded and noisy.
Friday
We departed after work on a Friday and hit bad rush hour traffic, adding at least two hours to the drive. As you head out of the city, the highway weaves through rolling hills and into the vast farmlands of central California.
Darkness consumed the sky at last as we made our final turn onto Highway 180, heading straight to Kings Canyon. The dark black road blended into the midnight sky, a twisting sea of yellow and white lines guiding us higher and higher into the mountains.
After what felt like eternity, we arrived. We pulled into our camp spot and stepped out of the car into the cool mountain air, the smell of dirt and cedar invigorating our lungs. I looked up at the trees, towering above us, the stars sparkling beyond the branches. The six hours we’d just spent in the car felt insignificant. We were finally here, and it was magical.
Saturday
The next morning, we sipped cowboy coffee and headed towards Cedar Grove, the heart of Kings Canyon. I’d researched the park beforehand, so I had a general sense of the different districts and the available hikes. Nothing online prepared me for the drama of the canyon in actuality.
Highway 180 twists dramatically through a grove of giant Sequoias, climbing over a scorched forest at the summit, and then opening up into one hell of a dramatic view.
Of course, we pulled over multiple times on the drive to Cedar Grove. It’s almost impossible to drive into the canyon without being inhibited by a sense of awe. The peaks tower above the canyon floor, the highest ones still capped with snow. The entire 28 mile drive is littered with roadside turn outs for this exact purpose, for the visitors to stop and gaze into the breathtaking scenery.
Approaching the canyon floor, we got our first glimpse of Kings River. It raged with a violence I’ve never seen before in nature. California had endured an abnormally wet winter, meaning the mountains has been pummeled with snow. The rapids made it clear just how much snow there had been.
The entire river raged. The rapids moved along furiously, spraying over boulders into a fine cloud of mist. We stood at the roadside and let the icy mist tickle us, sending a chill down our spines. It made me feel small and fragile to witness such a powerful force, created by the sun melting the snow. If I slipped and fell in, I’d never survive.
As we continued deeper into the canyon, I spotted signs for Grizzly Falls, and we pulled over for yet another roadside detour. We stood as close to the base as we could get, getting blasted by a misty wind created by the sheer power of the water pounding into the earth.
Deeper into the canyon, we arrived at the trailhead for our first hike: Zumwalt Meadow. The trail loops around the edge of the meadow, following the river’s edge and then hugging the base of the mountains on the south side of the canyon. The river flooding had submerged parts of the trail, forcing us to wade through the water for about a hundred feet. The water felt like pure ice, stinging our skin like hundreds of needles.
We traveled a bit further to Road’s End, where Highway 180 stops and our hike to Mist Falls began. The high noon sun showed us no mercy. Every step along the trail felt punishing, the heat pulsating upwards like we were cooking in nature’s giant frying pan.
By the time we reached the trail junction, heat exhaustion had got the best of us. We wandered a few feet down to cool off at the river, but the icy water felt almost as punishing. Just a few idle moments at the riverside attracted mosquitos, who swarmed around our bare skin, seizing any opportunity to take a bite. I dunked my shirt and hat in the river, and we resumed course.
The second half of the trail proved more beautiful and pleasant to endure. As we continued up, we glimpsed Gardiner Creek, a so-called “creek” as magnificent and fiercely powerful as Kings River. The trail followed the water close enough that the intense iciness of the snow melt cooled the scorching air. The closer we got, the more awestruck we became at the sheer volume of water. Several points along the trail looked intense enough to be the final destination. How could Mist Falls be any more impressive than this?
We climbed up a gradual, winding slope that opened up into an impressive vista, framing the snow capped peaks of the surrounding valley into a single exquisite view.
The temperature dropped several degrees, and a cloud of cool mist greeted us. From a few hundred feet away, Mist Falls crashed violently into the earth, erupting in a fine cloud of icy mist. We had arrived.
We followed the trail past the crowd that had gathered at the base of the falls, and took a seat on a granite boulder at the top of the falls. We shared a cold beer, a delicious reward, before descending the falls back into the scorching heat.
Back at the campsite, we set to work building a fire and preparing for our cooking experiment. We intentionally came unprepared… no cooking equipment, just a shitty $1 pocket knife and the raw ingredients.
A little backstory: the previous summer, Nick and I had taken a semi-unprepared camping trip with my Dad to the Wasatch Mountains in Utah. At that time, Nick and I mostly went on overnight backpacking trips, so we kept our packs constantly loaded. However, this particular trip was just traditional car camping, and we’d failed to bring even the most basic things. We even forgot water. That night, we ended up roasting carne asada on sticks we’d carved down to a pointy tip because that’s all we had. Though initially bewildered, Nick ended up loving the savage weirdness of this experience, and we’ve since aimed to recreate it.
So, here at Sunset Campground, we roasted carne asada over an open flame and then ripping into it savagely with our teeth and bare hands. It was delicious.
We spent the next few hours watching the fire as the sun set behind the lush green trees. Conversation drifted as we sipped on red wine. We fell asleep beneath a blanket of stars twinkling beyond the Sequoia branches.
Sunday
With a four hour drive ahead, we didn’t have much time left to explore Kings Canyon. We drove down the road to Grant’s Grove, an area full of giant Sequoias that towered hundreds of feet above us. We took a short loop through the grove, walking through the center of a fallen Sequoia, hollowed out from end to end. This tree was about 7–8 feet wide and a hundred feet long. We literally stood inside of it!
After that, we stopped briefly at Hume Lake. Sitting by the water, we fed baby ducks and soaked up the last few minutes of sunshine.
Though we spent a ton of time on the road, our weekend escape to Kings Canyon was worth the effort. I needed to see the mountains, to breathe the crisp air, to dunk my head in an icy river fueled by fresh snow melt. There’s something infinitely refreshing about the wilderness, about removing yourself from modern life and fully immersing yourself in the natural world. Next time, we’ll make sure it’s a backpacking trip.
