RV Squid: Kings Canyon National Park

March 18, 2024

It was a tough decision trying to decide where to camp in order to reach Kings Canyon National Park and Sequoia National Park. Campgrounds were expensive and a fair number of them received less-than-favorable reviews. It was extremely rare to see a full-hook up campground within thirty minutes of either park. Plus, I wanted a place to park for the week and not have to pick up and move to see both parks. In the end, I stuck with a national chain and we stayed at Visalia/Sequoia KOA.

Generals Highway runs between the two parks through national forests and Giant Sequoia National Monument. However, you are not getting an RV (over 22 ft) on Hwy 198. If you tried, you'd seriously tick off drivers who would wonder if you knew how to read all the signs telling you the length restrictions. You might also be fodder for a YouTube channel of national park idiots. There were a number of hairpin turns and elevation changes. It's the kind of road where 30 miles takes a good hour to drive. Plus, the last we had heard, Generals Highway wasn't going to be open for the season until April.

The road into Kings Canyon itself was still closed an due to winter/storm damage, would likely remain so for quite some time. However, the park ranger informed us that Generals Highway had just opened two days ago and that instead of backtracking as planned, we could go through to Sequoia National Park. Yeah!

The ranger gave us a solid tip to head to Sandy Cove day use area, which is actually in Sequoia National Forest and whose road passes through privately owned Hume Lake Christian Camp. We thoroughly enjoyed sitting on the rocks by rushing waters. I think we would have stayed longer if we knew we didn't have so much else to see.

After that we headed to the General Grant Tree. Sequoias are mind-boggling huge. In fact, when one was cut down and taken to the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, people called it the "California hoax," not believing that trees grew that large. Well, those folks would have been slack jawed to see the groves of sequoias. We certainly were.