King's Canyon and Sequoia National Parks day 1

10/2/11

We woke up really early on Saturday after an early night and tidy sleep. Monica drove south to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks which are two separate parks that are managed together. We arrived to Kings Canyon around lunch. Contrary to other parks, finding campground here was not going to be a problem, because this parks is not as popular. We reasoned it is not as popular because  is not as easy to reach and does not offer many activities for the average camper. With this said, it is a spectacular duo of parks that have nothing to envy in beauty and a paradise for serious hikers. 

We headed to inform ourselves about hikes and realized we were really close to the time of planning the Grand Canyon part of the trip. Originally we wanted to first white water raft with the Hualapai outfitters the west side of the canyon and then head up to the south rim to hike in and back. But all of this is very complicated and requires many permits. We knew this and had apply for one GC overnight permit but to this point are unsure if we got it, because the response arrives by mail.  We called the outfitter for white water rafting and realize that although they were happy to take us the roughness of the white waters was not really prime because is the end of the rafting season and water lever is high. We decided to save the 1000 for when the river it's on its prime. Next we reserved campground at Mather just in case and to be sure we have were to sleep in the 4th. All of this ordeal took pretty much all afternoon and we decided to just relax in the campground of The Kings Canyon side of the 2 parks not before getting some beer and food to eat.

 The drive from the Generals Grove Info center to KC was one hour but it was well worth it. The route is extremely scenic and reveals the many canyons created by both, but mainly glacier, and water force that gives KC it's name. The mountains in this part of the Sierra Nevada are different to any other, for some reason some type of moss covers them, giving these rocky mountains their  characteristic green and orange colors.

We arrived at Cedar Grove camp and set up for a lazy day. We explored and walked the river behind it collecting free firewood (one of Paul's favorite activities). After admiring the river we decided to swim in it the  first thing next morning. 

We cooked, drank, stared at the fire and sang. In view of the incoming Grand Canyon adventure we took a good chunk of time to read the Grand Canyon hiker book, we found it extremely useful. We think any person going to the Grand Canyon should read this book. Before going to bed we decided to leave the tent cover off to enjoy the beautiful scenic sequoia rooftops we were camping amongst.