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The Kings River
The river was extremely high and fast due to the snow pack this last winter, it reminded me of white water rafting with my good friend, Dave, when we were younger and lacking some much needed common sense. J |
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Here’s a nice vertical pano shot of the river and the canyon. Due to the narrow width of the canyon here, it was the only way I could get the river and the entire canyon wall into one photo – merge 3 photos together.
This photo is at the “end of the road,” as they park calls it, literally. You cannot get any father back except on foot from this point. This is the most rugged area of the Sierra mountain range and there are no roads that traverse this section. Mt. Whitney is almost directly east of this point, (the highest mountain in the continental US). It was time to make camp and this was a very nice site. The Kings river is right behind the trailer, though not visible in the photo. Surprisingly, it wasn’t very crowded in the park this weekend. |
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I took two rides during the 3 day camping trip. This was my fist ride with a stop at Kennedy Meadows, about 20 miles in from the paved road access point - a two day hike or 1.5 hours on an ATV. |
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An old cabin, probably 80-100 years old. There was an old road near here that ran to Kings Canyon from Grant’s Grove. It stopped being used in 1939 when they put Highway 180 in. This cabin was probably used during that period prior to 1939. |
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If you look closely you can see the Kings river down below, (middle of the photo, bottom of the canyon), which is where the pictures above were taken and I camped the first night. The Kings river is at an altitude of 3000 feet and we’re at about 8000’ here. I camped 20 feet away from the river on the first night and it was 60 in the morning. The sound of the water was very conducive to sleep, I might add. The second night, at a much higher elevation, it was 35 degrees at dawn, quite a contrast. |
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I ran across numerous Giant Sequoia groves on this trail. This grove was the largest with about 100 trees. This grove was about 25 miles off of the paved road. I rode for a total of 40 miles on this trail and never saw a sole. |
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This is the same tree done in a vertical panorama shot. |
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Another beautiful alpine meadow, this one is called Horse Meadow. It was the largest meadow I’d seen up here, running from this point east for about 3 miles. I could have camped here but the mosquitoes were really bad, although it was very tempting.
The Eagles song, Desperado, came to mind here. |
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Another nice riding spot and getting ready to do some exploring. There was still snow at this elevation, (8000 feet), though you cannot see it in the photo. The day time temperatures were very comfortable, ranging between 65 -75, depending on your elevation. |
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An unknown stream I came across, one of about 30 that day. (this is another vertical pano shot) |
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The last night camping, just pulling in. |
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This spot I chose was close to the General’s highway that runs between the national parks. You can see the San Joaquin valley below if you walk out to the end of the granite in this photo. A nice bonus, due to its proximity to the valley, was that I got great TV reception here which provided the local news the following morning.
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Getting ready for dinner, it is already getting chilly. For dinner I had barbequed chicken wings and they were great with cayenne pepper sauce and blue cheese dressing, yum! The movie was The Terminal with Tom Hanks, (which was so so). As usual, I was asleep by 9:30PM and up at a little after 5:00AM. I was able to watch the local news, have my coffee and hit the road by 7:00AM. I got home at 9:00AM. It was a very good trip, although I missed my two little sidekicks. Hopefully, next time they will join me, even if I have to make room for Barbie. J |
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