Kings Canyon RV Park - Dunlap, CA
Tuesday, April 3 We drove from Soledad RV Park, Acton 219 miles to Kings Canyon RV Park. What a disaster. The park has to be the worst park we have encountered. Sites are unlevel and full of weeds. Considering the location to Kings Canyon National park is the only plus. We never saw the manager – and she never returned our calls to confirm reservations. The hodge-podge of mobile home are in disrepair around this park. You certainly do not have a sense of security we have grown accustomed to at other parks. But we stayed because other parks were now too full to accommodate us.
Wednesday, April 5, 2007
We left around 10:30 am in dreary overcast skies, but the sun was trying to peak through the clouds at times. It wound up to be a beautiful day. We drove to see the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. First pull off you see the Sequoia National Monument at 3,000 ft. A lot of very curvy roads with switchbacks, but the scenery was amazing. Going from the dessert canyons with nothing but sand, limestone, and cactus from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and southern California, to see these green mountains was such an amazing transition. Yellow flowers were growing everywhere and added color to the sheer cliffs. Also saw a large amount of trees that were in full pink blooms. We were not able to take the road to see Kings Canyon overlook as they are still clearing the rocks from slides during the winter months. We also missed the Mist Falls, but there is always next year.
Wednesday, April 5, 2007
We left around 10:30 am in dreary overcast skies, but the sun was trying to peak through the clouds at times. It wound up to be a beautiful day. We drove to see the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. First pull off you see the Sequoia National Monument at 3,000 ft. A lot of very curvy roads with switchbacks, but the scenery was amazing. Going from the dessert canyons with nothing but sand, limestone, and cactus from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and southern California, to see these green mountains was such an amazing transition. Yellow flowers were growing everywhere and added color to the sheer cliffs. Also saw a large amount of trees that were in full pink blooms. We were not able to take the road to see Kings Canyon overlook as they are still clearing the rocks from slides during the winter months. We also missed the Mist Falls, but there is always next year.
We stopped at General Grant Grove Village at 6,600’ elevation. We saw a pristine grove of Sequoias, but the largest in the grove was the General Grant Tree, third largest of the Sequoias.
General Grant Tree is over 267 ft tall, 40 ft across its base and over 107 ft around. Estimates of its age range from 1500 to 2000 years old. Once it was thought to be 4000 years old due to its extreme width, but scientific studies have shown that its size is due to rapid growth in an ideal location. The main cause of death for Sequoias is toppling. Sequoias have a shallow root system with no tap root. Soil, moisture, root damage, and strong winds can also lead to toppling.
Kings Canyon reaches a depth outside the park of some 8,200 feet from river level up to Spanish Mountain's peak. There, just downstream from the confluence of the Middle and South Forks of the Kings River, the canyon is without peer in North America; deeper than the Snake River's Hells Canyon in Idaho, or the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Kern Canyon in southern Sequoia National Park is 6,000 feet deep, and several other canyons exceed 4,000 feet in depth. Sequoia & Kings Canyon Parks form the heart of the second-largest contiguous roadless area left in the lower 48 states. The southern Sierra is so rugged that few roads cross it; you must go north to Tioga Pass in Yosemite National Park or south to Walker Pass or Tehachapi Pass.
Friday, April 06, 2007
We left home around 10am to drive Hwy. 180 to Generals Highway through Sequoia National Park. Sequoia is the second-oldest national park in the United States. Managed as one park, together Sequoia and Kings Canyon total over 863,700 acres. The day is sunny and just a few wispy clouds high above the mountains. We saw beautiful pink, blue, purple, and white wildflowers along the highway and up on the mountains. The road grades were about 5-8%.
The drive is without hesitation the most beautiful we have ever seen, even in our favorite North Carolina mountains. Every twist and turn there was another incredible vision of beauty to behold. The road winds through more conventional forests of pine, fir and cedar trees but still with some scattered sequoia clusters, and after a while the canyon comes into view – there are places to stop and appreciate the tree-covered vistas that stretch for many miles east, west, and down to the river far below, and across the valley to higher, more rocky peaks that fade into the distance. We had to stop our photo-op delays or it would be dark before we returned home. We took our lunch break at Wuksachi Village and Lodge. We felt very fortunate they were open as all other stops we had passed were still closed and will not open until May. We were about half-way on our journey out of the mountains at Three Rivers. We ordered takeout lunch to eat in the truck as we had Mitzy with us. She loves snow!
Kings Canyon reaches a depth outside the park of some 8,200 feet from river level up to Spanish Mountain's peak. There, just downstream from the confluence of the Middle and South Forks of the Kings River, the canyon is without peer in North America; deeper than the Snake River's Hells Canyon in Idaho, or the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Kern Canyon in southern Sequoia National Park is 6,000 feet deep, and several other canyons exceed 4,000 feet in depth. Sequoia & Kings Canyon Parks form the heart of the second-largest contiguous roadless area left in the lower 48 states. The southern Sierra is so rugged that few roads cross it; you must go north to Tioga Pass in Yosemite National Park or south to Walker Pass or Tehachapi Pass.
Friday, April 06, 2007
We left home around 10am to drive Hwy. 180 to Generals Highway through Sequoia National Park. Sequoia is the second-oldest national park in the United States. Managed as one park, together Sequoia and Kings Canyon total over 863,700 acres. The day is sunny and just a few wispy clouds high above the mountains. We saw beautiful pink, blue, purple, and white wildflowers along the highway and up on the mountains. The road grades were about 5-8%.
The drive is without hesitation the most beautiful we have ever seen, even in our favorite North Carolina mountains. Every twist and turn there was another incredible vision of beauty to behold. The road winds through more conventional forests of pine, fir and cedar trees but still with some scattered sequoia clusters, and after a while the canyon comes into view – there are places to stop and appreciate the tree-covered vistas that stretch for many miles east, west, and down to the river far below, and across the valley to higher, more rocky peaks that fade into the distance. We had to stop our photo-op delays or it would be dark before we returned home. We took our lunch break at Wuksachi Village and Lodge. We felt very fortunate they were open as all other stops we had passed were still closed and will not open until May. We were about half-way on our journey out of the mountains at Three Rivers. We ordered takeout lunch to eat in the truck as we had Mitzy with us. She loves snow!
Our next stop was at The General Sherman Tree and Visitor's Center. In volume of total wood, the giant sequoia stands alone as the largest living thing on Earth. Its nearly conical trunk, like a club, not a walking stick, shows why. At least one tree species lives longer, one has a greater diameter, three grow tall, but none is larger. In all the world, sequoias grow naturally only on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada, most often between 5,000 and 7,000 feet. There are some 75 groves in all. The General Sherman tree is between 2,300 and 2,700 years old. Its largest branch is almost seven feet in diameter. Each year the General Sherman adds enough wood growth to make a 60-foot-tall tree of usual proportions. I took the walk up the ramp slowly to get pictures and Ray stayed down below with Mitzy as the park rangers do not allow pets on the walkways. It was quite a hike for me and took about 15 minutes to get to the tree, but worth it.
"Most of the Sierra trees die of disease, fungi, etc," John Muir wrote, "but nothing hurts the Big Trees. Barring accidents, it seems to be immortal." Muir was partially right. Chemicals in the wood and bark provide resistance to insects and fungi. Their wood is so impervious to decay that piles of sawdust remain in Grant Grove's Big Stump Basin where sequoias were cut for lumber over 100 years ago. This ability helps them to survive for centuries; the oldest known sequoia lived more than 3200 years. Since they continue to grow each year, they achieve impressive sizes. Sequoias sprout from seeds so small and light, they look like oat flakes. Mature trees may produce each year 2,000 chicken's egg-sized cones, collectively bearing 500,000 seeds, dispersed only as cones are opened. Cones hang on the tree green and closed for up to 20 years. Douglas squirrels or the larvae of a tiny cone-boring beetle may cause cones to open, but fire is the key agent in the dispersal of seeds. It causes the cone to dry, open, and drop its seeds. The fire also consumes logs and branches that have accumulated on the forest floor. Their ashes form fertile seedbeds and enhance sequoia seedling survival. The fire cycle ensures seed release and seedbed fertility.
The rest of the road down the mountain had double-hairpin turns, and at one spot to save a sequoia tree, they split the road and made it one-way around the tree. We were told about the road construction that stopped all traffic at the top of every hour. We missed the open gates by one minute and had to wait for 59 minutes before we could go down the one-way road past the construction area. They are shoring up the sides of the mountain with new rock formations. It was about a mile down the side of the mountain and very scary.
"Most of the Sierra trees die of disease, fungi, etc," John Muir wrote, "but nothing hurts the Big Trees. Barring accidents, it seems to be immortal." Muir was partially right. Chemicals in the wood and bark provide resistance to insects and fungi. Their wood is so impervious to decay that piles of sawdust remain in Grant Grove's Big Stump Basin where sequoias were cut for lumber over 100 years ago. This ability helps them to survive for centuries; the oldest known sequoia lived more than 3200 years. Since they continue to grow each year, they achieve impressive sizes. Sequoias sprout from seeds so small and light, they look like oat flakes. Mature trees may produce each year 2,000 chicken's egg-sized cones, collectively bearing 500,000 seeds, dispersed only as cones are opened. Cones hang on the tree green and closed for up to 20 years. Douglas squirrels or the larvae of a tiny cone-boring beetle may cause cones to open, but fire is the key agent in the dispersal of seeds. It causes the cone to dry, open, and drop its seeds. The fire also consumes logs and branches that have accumulated on the forest floor. Their ashes form fertile seedbeds and enhance sequoia seedling survival. The fire cycle ensures seed release and seedbed fertility.
The rest of the road down the mountain had double-hairpin turns, and at one spot to save a sequoia tree, they split the road and made it one-way around the tree. We were told about the road construction that stopped all traffic at the top of every hour. We missed the open gates by one minute and had to wait for 59 minutes before we could go down the one-way road past the construction area. They are shoring up the sides of the mountain with new rock formations. It was about a mile down the side of the mountain and very scary.
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CA - Dunlap / 4/3-6/07
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