Day 214, Aug 27, Kings Canyon National Park

 Bambi and her occupants are happily camped at about 7000 feet in the quiet cool forest of the Sierra Nevada Range.  Kings Canyon National Park is our host this week, and what a welcome relief it is to have climbed into the cooler mountains from the searing temperatures we hiked in yesterday at Pinnacles.



We got dang lucky at this park. I’d made campground reservations months ago, then cancelled when I thought we’d not be able to buy a truck in time to make it here. When I tried to rebook a week ago, I didn’t think I’d find any availability, but the camping gods were with us, and we snagged a spot for 7 nights. Which is a long time in a dry park. California is experiencing such a long and severe drought that all showers in the park have been shut down. Now my Bambi is a doll, but she does have her limitations. She holds enough water for us each to shower 3 times and do about 5 days of dishes. Because of the unavailability of water here, we will just have to shower less often and lick clean our dinner plates. 


As with all the parks we’ve visited, I’ve tried to combine excursions to all the popular sites with at least one off-the-beaten-path adventure in the back country away from the crowds. Kings Canyon is no different; next week we will backpack into the hinterlands, but today we joined the rest of the tourists and visited such sites as…


…Grant Grove with its massive General Grant Tree (a behemoth at 279 feet tall and 107 feet around) and the walk-through Fallen Monarch…







…Panoramic Point which looks out over Hume Lake, the peaks of the Sierra Nevadas, and Kings Canyon through which Kings River tumbles and where we will backpack next week…


…Grizzly Falls…



…green and lush Zumwalt Meadow…






…Roaring River Falls…



…and Knapp’s Cabin.



Three amazing things: 


1- The confidence instilled when one drives thousands of miles in a new truck that you know will not break down is well worth the cost of said truck.


2- Despite this being the height of tourist season, the crowds in this park are happily quite reasonable and manageable, certainly much less than I anticipated. 


3- When firewood sells for a confiscatory $12.90 per small box, one need only find an industrious and hard-working man with a saw. Within 30 minutes he supplied us with the equivalent of 5 boxes, a savings of $64.50. 





Good deed: I wanted to share some of our firewood with neighbors but couldn’t quite find the heart to give away anything from Aaron’s pile of wood which he was so proud to have produced. Instead, I gave a bag of Costco candied pecans to the cute young family across the way who helped us park last night when we pulled in after dark.

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