KingsCanyon National Park

Today we visited two sections of Kings Canyon National Park accessible by road: the General Grant sequoia grove and the massive and deep Kings Canyon.

one of several sequoias in this grove with evidence of fire scars

The sequoia grove, part of an old growth forest preserved by the park, is closest to the entrance. We stopped there first and went in search of the Mark Twain stump. 

these colossal trees stand tall and majestic, dwarfing even the
tallest pines around them

Along the way we passed several other stumps, sad remnants of late 19^th century logging.   If only the loggers had taken into account how long it takes sequoias to fully mature.

there were many of  these stumps along the trail, hacked down and left to rot

We weren't quite sure what to expect while on the hunt for the Mark Twain stump. But we knew when we found the stump. You couldn't miss it, it was so gigantic (and of course it had the stairway leading up to the top). 

Michael on the Mark Twain stump

the top of the Mark Twain 16-foot-diameter stump, revealing its age -
1,341 years! 

In the mid-1800s after the California Gold Rush, stories continued to reach the East Coast about superlative wonders in the 'Far West' - mountains of gold, alpine peaks, huge waterfalls and enormous trees.  Americans became skeptical.  The American Museum of Natural History in New York wanted a cross section of a sequoia tree for public display, so in 1891 a tree was selected for the "Ultimate Sacrifice" and dedicated to the author Mark Twain.  Slabs of the trunk were sent for display in New York and London museums. It took two men 13 days to cut the tree down. Put another way, it took 13 days to wipe out 1300 years' of history. 
Sequoia wood is too soft to be used for construction timbers, so the remainder of the tree was cut up for grape stakes and fence posts. 
I walked away saddened to think that after growing for so many centuries, the giant tree's end was indeed an ultimate sacrifice. 

Next we went in search of the 1,650-year-old General Grant sequoia, the second-largest tree and a living national shrine. In 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower declared the tree a "National Shrine" as a memorial to those who died in the war. It is also the Nation’s Christmas Tree. Once again, I had to photograph the tree in two sections:

this map shows both Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, and also
Yosemite National Park, all part of the rugged Sierra Nevada Range

The remainder of Kings Canyon National Park, comprising over 90% of the total area of the park, is located east of the General Grant sequoia grove and forms the headwaters of the South and Middle Forks of the Kings River and the South Fork of the San Joaquin River. Both forks of the Kings River have extensive glacial canyons. One portion of the south fork is known as Kings Canyon, the deeply incised U-shaped glacial gorge with relatively flat floors and towering granite cliffs.  The 8,200-foot depth from the surrounding peaks to the Kings River below makes it one of the deepest canyons in the US. A wide glacial valley features the tall cliffs, the meandering river, waterfalls, and a meadow accessible by car along the only 32-mile road leading into the canyon.

The drive was long but also spectacular, with views of the craggy tops of the mountains at the higher elevations. 

looking at the squiggly road below that would take us into the canyon

Eventually, the road began to descend 2,700 feet into the steeply v-shaped river canyon that later widened into the u-shaped glacially carved canyon. 

It was quite daunting meandering between the towering granite walls that loomed thousands of feet above us. Once again, I fervently hoped that the San Andreas Fault remained quiet and sleeping.

starting the steep descent into the canyon

phenomenal granite cliffs surrounding us and towering high above us 

on some corners, the rocks looked like they were about to topple over

I kept wondering how nature could create formations so massive

Closer to the bottom of the canyon, the road followed the fast-moving Kings River. 
There were folks parked along the side of the road in several spots, some fishing, others dipping their feet in the river,

still descending into the canyon, more granite crags hovering high above

At Road's End, appropriately named, the road came to an end in the U-shaped canyon, with the steel grey Grand Sentinel towering 8,518 feet above us on one side and North dome looming across the way at 8,717 feet. I couldn't help feeling very tiny and insignificant.

From this point on, any more exploring is by permit into the vast wilderness of the mountains. There were several folks setting out with backpacks. 

On the return trip, before we retraced our path back up the 2,700 feet we had just descended, we stopped to see Roaring River Falls, rushing through a granite chute. 

The road in reverse was equally spectacular, particularly because in the setting afternoon sun the rocks looked like they were ablaze. 

At one of the viewpoints, we were able to look straight down at the Kings River rushing
below us. It was a dizzying sheer drop, thousands of feet down, but very difficult to
capture by camera  

 We climbed higher and higher, and still the granite walls towered above us.

I was thankful there is a wall at the very edge of the road because I was
the one closest to the edge

the setting afternoon sun highlighting the rock formations

If yesterday's exploring in Sequoia National Park left me awestruck, today's visit to Kings Canyon left me incredulous. This is nature in all its raw grandeur, incomprehensible in power, scale and size. I cannot even begin to imagine the forces that created these formations that are tens of millions years old. Here the results of plate tectonics are seen at their best, together with glacial forces and erosion.  During several glacial periods, the glaciers that carved out the canyon were up to 4 miles thick. That in itself is mind-boggling to comprehend - the sheer weight, the thickness, the force. And of course, nothing remains static, as natural forces continue to tweak at its initial creation, continually changing the landscape in small increments.

The cherry at the end of the day was the brilliant crimson sunset in the west and the Super Moon rising in the east. This full moon is the closest to the earth on its elliptical orbit since 1948, and it loomed like a large silver ball in the twighlit sky. 
It was indeed a long day, but a day filled with many natural wonders.

magnificent fiery skies

the Super Moon rising over the trees while the crimson sun set over the horizon