This weekend we hit the road and went to Kings Canyon National Park for a campout with the Boy Scouts. We arrived on Friday at the Canyon View campgrounds in the Cedar Grove section of the park, just south of the South Fork River .
The site was on a slope, but we found some flat areas and set our tents up. The rest of the group arrived after dark, one car at a time. But the scouts were quick to pitch their tents, so we were able to get to sleep fairly quickly. Of course we had noisy neighbors roll into to an adjacent site at 2:30 in the morning!
Saturday we got up early and had a quick breakfast before heading off to the Mist Falls trail. We were told it would be about 8 miles round trip – but that was a lie – it ended up being about 5 each way, so by lunchtime, we had a solid ten miles under our belt! The hike itself wasn’t too bad, (unless your out of shape like we were), but regardless, the sights were amazing. A good part of the hike was along the river, which was a nice effect. Andy wasn’t completely in agreement that the hike would be worth it, as we were never able to get up to the actual Mist Falls. However, we did make our way out to a part of the falls that were close to the trail, and we soaked ourselves gratuitously.
We regrouped at camp, had lunch, then it was off to our next adventure – a walking tour of the Boyden Caverns. This is a set of caves in Kings Canyon that was discovered in 1907 by a prospector named J. Putnam Boyden, who ended up living in the caves for about 10 years. The caves of course had the stalactites and stalagmites, but some of the cool aspects of this set of caves was the fact that they were largely made out of marble, and through a combination of rainwater and carbon dioxide within it, creates amazing calcium carbonate structures (essentially the same material found in corals). The park ranger providing the tour and information explained that indeed the whole area had been once under the ocean.
At the conclusion of the tour, we were granted the opportunity to leave the paved path, and take the “Wild Exit”, which would be how the prospector would have exited the cave back in his day. This was fun because – well, it’s off the paved path that everyone else takes of course, and because we had to test our agility by ducking and walking in low and tight spaces in the dark. Everyone had a lot of fun!
Before heading back to camp, we made a couple of pit stops to see some falls close by the road on our way back. These were the Roaring River Falls and the Grizzly Falls.
On Sunday, on our way out of the park, we made a couple of stops to see the Muir Rock, Zumwalt Meadows, and the famous giant Sequoia – The General Grant.
