Kings Canyon National Park

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Kings Canyon National Park
IUCN Category II (National Park)

Location:	California, USA
Nearest city:	Fresno, CA
Coordinates:	36°48′0″N, 118°33′0″W
Area:	461,901 acres (1,869 km²)
Established:	March 4, 1940
Visitation:	1,520,835 (in 2003)
Governing body:	National Park Service

This article is about Kings Canyon National Park, USA. For Kings Canyon, Australia, see Kings Canyon (Northern Territory).

Kings Canyon National Park is a U.S. National Park in the southern Sierra Nevada, east of Fresno, California. The park was established in 1940 and covers 462,901 acres (1,869.25 km²).

The park is contiguous to Sequoia National Park; the two are administered by the National Park Service as one unit, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

The main geographical feature of the park is Kings Canyon, a 4,000 feet (1.2 km) deep canyon carved by glaciers and the Kings River out of granite. Visitors can drive part of the way into Kings Canyon. The road stops just past Cedar Grove where there is a large flat granite rock jutting out into the Kings River, known as Muir Rock as John Muir occasionally gave talks on that rock in the early days of the Sierra Club outings to Kings Canyon (1901 to 1908?).

The canyon had been known to white settlers since the mid-1800's, but it was not until Muir first visited in 1873 that the canyon began receiving attention. Muir was delighted at the canyon's similarity to Yosemite Valley, as it reinforced his theory regarding the origin of both valleys, which, though competing with Josiah Whitney's then-accepted theory, later proved true: that both valleys were carved by massive glaciers during the last Ice Age.

Cloud Canyon, in the park's backcountry

Kings Canyon's future was in doubt for nearly fifty years. Some wanted to build a dam at the western end of the valley while others wanted to preserve it as a park. The debate was settled in 1965 when the valley, along with Tehipite Valley, was added to the already existing Grant Grove National Park.

The other major attraction is the park's Giant Sequoia groves. The park includes the Redwood Mountain Grove, which covers 3100 acres (13 km²) and has 15,800 sequoia trees over one foot (0.30 m) in diameter at their bases. This is the largest sequoia grove remaining in the world.

The park is also home to Grant Grove, which includes General Grant tree among other sequoias. That grove is connected by the park's Generals Highway to another sequoia grove, Giant Forest, which is in Sequoia National Park.

The park's eastern boundary follows the Sierra crest, from the Mount Goethe in the north, down to Junction Peak, at the boundary with Sequoia National Park. Several well-travelled passes cross the crest into the park, including Bishop Pass, Taboose Pass, Sawmill Pass, and Kearsarge Pass. All of these passes are above 11,000 feet (3400 m) elevation.

Most of the area of the park is backcountry wilderness, which is only accessible on foot or on horseback. The Sierra crest in the park reaches an elevation of 14,000 feet (4,300 m).

[edit] See also

Biology of the Sierra Nevada
List of guidebooks about the Sierra Nevada

[edit] External links

National parks of the United States

Acadia • American Samoa • Arches • Badlands • Big Bend • Biscayne Black Canyon of the Gunnison • Bryce Canyon • Canyonlands • Capitol Reef Carlsbad Caverns • Channel Islands • Congaree • Crater Lake • Cuyahoga Valley Death Valley • Denali • Dry Tortugas • Everglades • Gates of the Arctic • Glacier • Glacier Bay Grand Canyon • Grand Teton • Great Basin • Great Sand Dunes • Great Smoky Mountains Guadalupe Mountains • Haleakala • Hawaii Volcanoes • Hot Springs • Isle Royale Joshua Tree • Katmai • Kenai Fjords • Kings Canyon • Kobuk Valley • Lake Clark Lassen Volcanic • Mammoth Cave • Mesa Verde • Mount Rainier • North Cascades • Olympic Petrified Forest • Redwood • Rocky Mountain • Saguaro • Sequoia • Shenandoah Theodore Roosevelt • Virgin Islands • Voyageurs • Wind Cave • Wrangell-St. Elias
Yellowstone • Yosemite • Zion List by: date established, state

Categories: IUCN Category II | National parks of the United States | National parks in California | Sierra Nevada | 1940 establishments