High Sierra Secret
Discover California’s hidden wonder, Kings Canyon
Part of the pleasure of visiting Kings Canyon is the chance to see it with experts. After spending 27 years as a park ranger, naturalist Jim Warner now leads seminars for the Sequoia Natural History Association. “I learned to carry binoculars always,” says Warner on a Saturday afternoon walk through Zumwalt Meadow, a gem of a spot on the valley floor just off the scenic byway. Proving his point, he raises his binoculars and gestures to a pair of white-throated swifts flying near the top of the 8,717-foot granite North Dome. “Watch, watch,” he says excitedly. “They’ll go up by that cliff there and then―swoop!―right into the crack in the rock. That’s where they nest.”
The South Fork of the Kings River, which gushes whitewater on the drive in, winds more lazily past Zumwalt Meadow, forming swirling turquoise pools framed by bright green meadow grasses and ferns. This area is studded with lupines and pussy paws, fairly flat, and perfect for a leisurely loop hike and a picnic. Two miles east of the meadow is Roads End, where you can jump off onto other trails and revel in the intimacy of the valley floor itself. Ambitious hikers can tackle the Mist Trail, which climbs steeply alongside the Kings River, past waterfalls that thunder so aggressively you can feel the reverberations in your chest.Hiking the Mist Trail in June is as awesome a Sierra experience as one can have. Still, the view of the canyon floor at Roads End is just as powerful. The canyon’s glacier-scrubbed granite walls rise as high as those in Yosemite Valley. But Yosemite Valley stretches a full mile wide; here, Kings Canyon is only a half-mile across. The granite feels close, as if you’re enfolded into the very Sierra Nevada itself. It’s a classic Kings Canyon moment: intimate but grand, with past, present, and future caught in sculpted rock and spring sunlight.Kings Canyon travel planner: camping, lodging, hiking, and more