Sequoia/Kings Canyon Trip on a Moment's Notice

With both my partners at work taking nearly month-long trips over June and July, I started to get antsy knowing that I'd be tied down over the next two months. Joe was kind enough to cover some days for me so we could get off-island for a week. Not having anything particular in mind, we were sure of one thing: no overnight flight. That pretty much leaves us with Hawaiian islands, Cali, Seattle and Portland. Since it had been hot and calm for the past few weeks in Kalaheo, we decided on cooler climes and headed to the Sierra Nevada mountains to check out the adjoining national parks. We booked our last minute flight on Priceline and saved 55% which allowed us to spend more on our shoddy accommodations (more on that later).

We got some reasonable flights into Fresno, CA and planned on driving the hour and fifteen minutes to the park that night even though we were scheduled to arrive at 11:20 PM. With the 3 hour time difference, that wasn't too bad until we called the guy that was renting us the cabin and he didn't have any record of us booking it. Not surprisingly, he had no problem taking my credit card number over the phone a few days before that. This guy seemed to be the most organized fellow I'd ever encountered. After wasting about 45 minutes of our precious non-crabby time with Maddie, he realized that he did have have our reservation.

Upon arriving at the somewhat difficult to find cabin, Mr. Disorganized wanted to talk our ears off while Maddie wanted to go back to sleep. We were thrilled to find out that the 2 sources of heat advertised on the website were an old, inefficient fireplace and a brand new tabletop propane heater that used the little green Coleman propane tanks. These were good for about 3 hours of heat. Not an ideal method to warm an entire cabin with an 18 month who is accustomed to 70 degree temperatures at night especially when nighttime temperatures at 6500 feet fall to the 40s even in June.

After a restless night of sleep, we enjoyed the daytime scenery and made the hour drive to the Cedar Grove area of Kings Canyon. It was a beautiful drive and we made multiple stops along the way for short, easy hikes where Maddie could get out and run around after a day of traveling. Great mountain, waterfall and meadow scenery for little effort and the weather was specatcular - high 60's, mostly sunny. We stopped at the market on the way back to pick up supplies which consisted mostly of beer and pre-packaged meals. As you may know, food selection and quality is not the strong point of the national parks. We settled in at the cabin and got a roaring fire going to fend off the chilly evening temperatures and keep the place warm through the night.

Grizzly Falls

I love waterfalls...aaaarrrrrggghhhh!

Roaring River Falls

Zumwalt Meadow

Due to another night of sub-standard sleep, we got a late start to Cedar Grove to hike the Mist Falls Trail. None of us were in a great mood so the hour ride to our destination was less than pleasant. The skies were foreboding and rain intermittently pelted the windshield on our way to the trailhead. We geared up and departed for the falls despite the high likelihood of rain and low likelihood that we could make the 4.1 mile one way hike before we got drenched. We kept a blistering pace along the trail and made the falls in about 70 minutes. The sight of the waterfall brightened everyone's mood and we cruised back to the trailhead much happier than we had left it.

Everyone slept well that night and we spent the next day making our way along the General's Highway seeing some of the more touristy sights. We did a short, easy hike to another huge waterfall and then saw the largest living thing in the world - the General Sherman Giant Sequoia. The scenery along the "highway" was beautiful ranging from expansive mountain views to beautiful old growth sequoias, but the descent into Three Rivers was extremely narrow and winding. We were spurred on by the thought of a meal not produced by the national parks.

Tokopah Falls

Sadly, we were disappointed by the food selection in Three Rivers as it was harldly the artsy, gateway community described in the guidebook. It was more like a collection of crappy strip malls lined up along the road to the national park with some mildly pretty river scenery. Positives: Our lodging was much cheaper, our accommodations were very nice, good access to the remote Mineral King area of the park, the grocery store had Stone Pale Ale and Arrogant Bastard. Negatives: The "natural river water source" that supplied our shower smelled like hot rotten eggs, food was average and overpriced. Unfortunately, the weather, which had cooperated nicely until this point, did not hold out and the high elevation Mineral King Valley received snow overnight.

Despite the overcast, rainy, foggy weather, we drove through the mountains to Mineral King. The rangers informed us that typical conditions for this time of year was 50's and sunny with wildflowers starting to bloom, but we got rainy and 34 degress. Em and Maddie, having much more sense than me, returned to the car after a brief jaunt, while I continued up the mountain to view some high alpine lakes. As the snow began to fall quite hard and my tracks disappeared behind me in nearly whiteout conditions, I determined seeing alpine lakes wasn't as important as seeing Em and Maddie again so I turned around (about a quarter mile from the lakes). We ate some average Mexican food for dinner and returned to the comfort of our cabin to watch a few movies and partake of some Stone brews.

Some of the wildlife - Marmot, also affectionately known by as "mountain beaver"

How I spent my summer vacation...

Our flight was scheduled for early afternoon so we made a leisurely departure from Three Rivers to catch our flight in Fresno. Maddie was an absolute angel on the flight. We were ecstatic to have the entire row to ourselves since the big-haired crazy Hollywood "executive" just couldn't be bothered with having a small child in her row and thus, moved up a row. Good riddance, though I did have trouble seeing the flight attendant past our friend's extravagantly teased hair.

It was a great trip especially considering our severe lack of planning until 1 week prior to departure. I highly recommend Kings Canyon Sequoia if you're looking for the grandeur of Yosemite without waiting in line to take your outdoor photos.