King’s Canyon National Park
Part 4 in my National Parks blog series
Heeding the advice of my friend the geology professor who’s been coming here since he was two, I got up before dawn. It’s almost a three-hour drive to King’s Canyon from here at the base of Sequioa. I gassed up and packed my daypack last night. All I needed this morning was to have my coffee, read a bit of Bible, and make my cheese and tomato sandwich. I got off at 5:30 am.
In a way, today felt like a highlight reel of the past several days. My drive started in the foothill chapparal (previous word of the day), that lovely little ecosystem teeming with birds and little critters. I especially enjoyed seeing little coveys (new word of the day) of quail scurrying by the roadside, looking like something straight out of a Dr. Seus book with those curious head feathers.
Next up, the switchbacks. Up and over and down and back and up and around and… yup, you can’t get through the Sierra Nevada without them. The drops weren’t as precipitous as they were in Sequoia yesterday. And I got more comfortable moving that beast of a Ford SUV up the mountain.
And then the payoff, getting to experience another wonderous feature of nature.
King’s Canyon borders Sequioa to the North. It also serves as a refuge for the tree giants, including the famous "General Grant” tree, which I saw today. But the star of the show here is the canyon. This is a mini-Yosemite, at least that’s what they say. I can’t call it a mini anything. It’s massive. Per Wikipedia, “The stupendous rocks of purplish gray granite that form the walls are from 2500 to 5000 feet in height, while the depth of the valley is considerably more than a mile.”
Looking down from the top of the canyon, just spectacular! It seems to go forever, layers and layers of canyon walls that overlap and then seemingly fade into a distant infinity. Looking up from the bottom as I hiked from Road’s End (which is where, well, the road ends) to Mist Falls, even more astounding! I hope the pictures do some little measure of justice to this monumental scenery.
I had two memorable encounters today with other hikers. The first came as I sat taking a short water break at the side of the raging river. I barely heard a man trying to say something to me. I looked around. “Watch out, there’s a rattlesnake on the path ahead. I moved it with a stick, but it might go back.”
My first thought, said out loud, was, “Thank you for letting me know.”
My second thought, to myself, was, “There are rattlesnakes around here?”
My next thought was, “Yes, dummy, of course there are. Pay attention!”
As I walked on, eyes on the path, I had one more thought. “He had a stick. I need a stick. I need a rattlesnake stick.”
I found a worthy candidate, thick, heavy, ready for battle. Five minutes later, I laid the stick back in its natural habitat, confident in my new focus on eyeing the path, and tired of carrying a thick, heavy stick.
The other encounter happened not too long afterwards. A family was heading down the path as I was walking up. The father seemed about my age. I supposed they were Korean. That matters because of what happened next. I stepped aside to let them pass by. The first to pass was the older man. He paused for a moment, smiled, and gave a short bow. Then he held up his hand as he walked by. At first, I thought he was asking me to continue to wait. But then I realized what he wanted and gave him a high five as he passed. It felt like mutual respect and a moment of human connection. I walked on with a smile of my own.
Tomorrow is a rest day as I travel back to the Bay area ahead of a friend’s wedding. I will meet up with Caryn there. Together, after the wedding and after a workshop I’m leading on Tuesday, we will go to visit Lassen Volcanic National Park. Oh, and wine country :)