braindump

The helpful ranger at the visitor centre suggested that driving to the end of the road down Kings Canyon would take 2 hours return, while the return trip to the end of Sequoia National Park would be 4 hours. Of course, if I wanted to stop at any of the dozen or so highlights then it would take much longer.

Kings Canyon

John Muir compared Kings Canyon favourably with Yosemite, but it’s a very different experience. For one thing, the canyon is so narrow (it’s V-shaped, compared with Yosemite’s wide U shape) that you can’t really get a good look at it from within it. And it bends enough that from the road leading in, you can only see a short way along. So, unlike with Yosemite, it’s hard to get an overall view of the place; instead you can only capture features from isolated viewpoints. I guess all this means that John Muir didn’t have photography in mind when he made his comparison.

Of course, if you’re after a quiet experience, Kings Canyon is the way to go. Driving down the only road in (and out) was rather like hiking on a remote trail in Yosemite; you see other people only every 5 minutes or so. I doubt there were more than a hundred people in the canyon while I was there, and saw less than a dozen to speak to.

Heading out of Kings Canyon, the road towards Sequoia offered a standard western Sierra Nevada experience: well forested, some granite outcrops, and a meandering road that is conducive to travelling its own sake, rather than the destination. But there are probably people who still take the road quickly, and fail to notice the odd sequoia near the road, or in a couple of places, whole stands of the trees just metres from the road. Sequoia do seem to occur in groves, but if the sample you can see from the road is any indication, the place must be full of them, tucked away in less accessible places.

Moro Rock

View on top of Moro Rock

I did however have a destination in mind this day, which was Moro Rock, Sequoia’s answer to Half Dome. The ascent of Moro Rock involves steps and handrails, but unlike Half Dome, you drive up to the starting point, rather than hiking for five hours. The whole ascent takes only 15 minutes or so (less if don’t already have sore legs), and the view from the top is quite something. It’s a small rock, with only a few metres of flat-ish space to either side of the walkway on the top, which means you can see the views to both sides at once.

My last destination for the day was the sequoias themselves, including General Sherman, the largest (by volume) tree in the world, at 1,487 cubic metres. Nested among other trees, it presents another photographic challenge, so I went with an ultra-wide-angle lens and massively exaggerated perspective for the photo on the left.

General Sherman sequoia

There were many other sequoias nearby, including fallen trees that had been modified (in the way that nature used to be interfered with to suit the purposes of tourism), one so you could drive through it, and another that you could park on.

Returning home, I made a final detour up a road leading off from the Grant Grove Village to a lookout point. Although the view was hazy, you could still see for miles, and be amazed that most of the visible scene was wilderness, with no roads, and just a few hiking trails.