Hiking in Kings Canyon National Park

We were so glad we stayed at that random campsite in the valley further away from Big Sur, not only because it provided for an adventure getting there, but we had an incredible drive on the way out to Kings. It was early morning, just before sunrise, and there was a fog over the entire valley. As we drove, we saw fields and rolling hills of gold. This is California.





We also drove through one of the biggest areas of fruit production. We probably passed through thousands of acres of grapes and fruit trees near Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley. Miles and miles of extremely flat fertile land in what seemed like the middle of nowhere.





I love that we rented a car. We have seen so much of the state. It's been beautiful and so diverse. Bryce and I just keep saying to each other, "This country is so big!"





We arrived at Kings Canyon around noon on Friday (July 30). After getting Emily and Tim's advice on where to go and hike, we went straight out to the Cedar Grove area to "Road's End."



It was all pretty rushed when we arrived, and before we went to the ranger station, we drove into a camp area and put up the tent to stake our claim in case we couldn't get a back country permit.

At the ranger station, we talked with the ranger about what hikes we could do for 2 nights, 3 days, and we got a permit! (If you want to go do overnight hikes in the parks, you have to get/buy a back country permit, and they are limited because they don't want to overcrowd the trails and back country camping areas. They are very specific about camping only in specified areas.) We also had to go over a safety talk with the ranger, give emergency contact info, AND rent a bear canister for all of our food/smelly items. I started getting really nervous. My imagination went wild with the thought of bears all over the place, which is extremely common in those areas.



We got our tent and all of our overnight hiking gear together and by 1:30pm, we were on the trail! We did 2 parts of the Rae Lakes Loop. The whole loop is about 46 miles, which would have been awesome, but we had limited time.



The first day, we hiked 6 miles up a mountain with tons of switchbacks (or zigzags) to a nice campsite by a roaring river. The hike was really tough.



There were really clear mountain rivers all over the place. Tons of trout. Bryce wishes he had a fly rod.





We saw a lot of deer. They were not scared of people at all. I think that some people must feed them just to get good pictures. It seemed like they were just waiting for us to take some food out and offer it to them.



There were some big trees.