Kings Canyon Dec.23 -- 26, 2007 [Kings Canyon Gallery] [Back to Photo Page]

Deep canyons, high peaks, and big trees make Kings Canyon a treasure in the Sierra Nevada. Originally established as "General Grant National Park" in 1890 (only one week after Sequoia National Park), the Kings Canyon National Park was created and enlarged in 1940. In 1943, Sequoia and Kings Canyon were merged and managed as one park, sharing miles of boundary and wilderness.

Getting there ...

Winter in the Sierra Nevada has been one of our favorite vacation plans (Yosemite 2001, Sequoia 2003, Yosemite 2007) although we have to buy new winter gears for Linus and Iris every year since they grow up so fast. There was a snow storm in Sierra mountains a few days before, but the weather has cleared up and the road condition was back to normal and we did not even need to install our snow chains when we got to the Kings Canyon National Park.

• Sledding at Montecito-Sequoia
  After entering Kings Canyon at around 2:30PM, we went to Montecito-Sequoia Lodge in Sequoia National Forest directly. There was a groomed hill with gentle slope just a few minutes of walking from the lodge parking. The slope was so perfect and it made sledding so easy that we had almost 100% successful rate of sled ride.

• Grant Grove Village
  

  We headed to Grant Grove Village in Kings Canyon National Park after it began to get darker. We stayed in the historic Grant Grove Cabin for the next 3 nights including Christmas Eve.

The Second Day ...

• Cross Country Skiing at Montecito-Sequoia
  We went back to Montecito-Sequoia Lodge to try cross country ski. We all took some ski lesson in the morning (kids and adults had separate lessons), and learned a few basic skills about cross country ski. I felt cross country ski was somehow different from downhill ski: the cross country ski is much narrower and it is harder to control turns sometimes. After lunch, we decided to keep trying a beginner's cross country ski trail together. Although we still fell from time to time, Linus and Iris were getting much better and enjoyed skiing more and more (compared with last year in Yosemite...).

After we returned our ski gears at around 4PM, Linus and Iris still did not want to leave, so we decided to go sledding again while Woanyu stayed in the car waiting for us. After a few successful runs, an accident happened: Linus and Iris were riding together, and Linus was controlling the sled and hit a bump (intentionally?). Unfortunately, Iris hit something and her nose was bleeding hard. Luckily, we had our walkie-talkie with us this time, and I could call Woanyu to ask her to come over to rescue us right away :-)

The Third Day ...

• Grant Grove
  We rented snowshoes and headed to Grant Grove in the morning, and we were the only car in the parking lot when we got there. It's kind of special to be with the Nation's Christmas Tree (the General Grant Tree, the third largest tree in the world) on Christmas Day. The good thing to have snowshoes in winter is that we can easily go beyond the trails and walk right into the woods without any boundary. With a few steps away from the trail, we were able to get close to giant sequoia trees and got to the places where no other people can reach w/o snowshoes. We found a place surrounded by a few sequoia trees and started our first snow fight of the day.

 

After the lunch at the Grant Grove Village, we went back to Grant Grove with our snowshoes again to find other places to explore. We went beyond the trail in another direction this time, and founded our 2nd and 3rd snow battle ground to spend the entire afternoon there.

 

The Last Day ...

• Big Stump
  Big Stump Basin was added to the national park in 1958 and allowed visitors in the Grant Grove area to compare the remnants of destroyed sequoias with nearby giants. Although its 1-mile loop trail was all covered in snow, it was still quite accessible for hiking in spite of being a little slippery. The weather had changed dramatically compared with the previous few days. It was much colder and started to have a few snowflakes falling from the sky.

Going Home ...

We finally tried cross country ski this time, and we all enjoyed this new winter experience. Linus and Iris both even think skiing is more fun than snowshoeing this time. As usual, we stopped by a McDonald's in Fresno to have a quick lunch on the way home. Linus and Iris were still not tired of the "word relay" game that we kept playing for an hour in the car. We will go back to Kings Canyon sometime in a warmer season and have more hiking next time.

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