Look more closely, though, and you’ll also find sensuous sand dunes, water-sculpted canyons, rocks moving across the desert floor, extinct volcanic craters, palm-shaded oases and plenty of endemic wildlife. This is a land of superlatives: it’s the hottest, driest and lowest national park in the USA. The very name evokes all that is harsh, hot and hellish – a punishing, barren and lifeless place of Old Testament severity. Hiking in Death Valley National Park is challenging but rewarding © Dan Sedran / Shutterstock 4. All that before you've even walked a trail – where the wild scenes (and brief encounters with black bears) will give you goosebumps, charging waterfalls will leave you awestruck, and epic overnight backpacking trips will lead you to deserted lakes and idyllic backcountry camps. The Big Stump Entrance, not far from Grant Grove Village, is the park’s only entrance station.Īs if all that weren’t enough, picture unzipping your tent flap and crawling out into a “front yard” of trees as high as a 20-story building and as old as the Bible: welcome to Sequoia National Park. Brew some coffee as you plan your day of adventures in this extraordinary place, with its soul-sustaining forests and gigantic peaks soaring above 12,000ft.Ĭhoose to gaze at dagger-sized stalactites in a 100,000-year-old cave, view the largest living tree on earth, climb 350 steps to a granite dome with soaring views of the snowcapped Great Western Divide or drive through a hole in a 2000-year-old log. Still, Kings Canyon Scenic Byway (Hwy 180 only open end of April to October) twists and bends through some of the most dramatic scenery in California, making the natural bounty accessible to all (all who drive with confidence, that is). Peaks more than 14,000ft high occupy other parts of the park, most of which is designated wilderness. Grant Grove is where you’ll find General Grant, the second-largest tree in the world. While neighboring Sequoia National Park gets all the glory, Kings Canyon has its own groves of enormous sequoias, with trails that are far less trafficked. The camping, backcountry exploring and climbing here are all superb. With a dramatic cleft deeper than the Grand Canyon, rugged Kings Canyon offers true adventure to those who crave seemingly endless verdant trails, rushing streams and gargantuan rock formations. Groves of giant sequoias, wildflower-strewn meadows, gushing waterfalls, dramatic gorges and spectacular vistas reveal themselves at nearly every turn. Joined by a high-altitude roadway bisecting a national forest and contiguous with a number of wilderness areas, these two parks combined offer vast stretches of alpine bliss. Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parksīest for backcountry exploring and ancient trees Kings Canyon offers endless backcountry adventures © RooM the Agency / Alamy Stock Photo 2. At the solar-powered Schulman Grove Visitor Center, get your bearings and catch your breath before admiring these wizened survivors. From Independence, wind your way up the high-altitude road to the White Mountains, stopping midway to admire the distant spiked ridge of the Sierra Nevada and the valley below. With some trees estimated to be about 4000 years old, the gnarled and wind-battered stalwarts of the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest have certainly stood the test of time.
You can also respect your elders and pay homage to the oldest living things on earth. Join other blister-footed obsessives crossing chilly rivers and streams as you traverse Yosemite Valley, the roadless backcountry of Kings Canyon and Sequoia and the oxygen-scarce Whitney summit. A true adventure, the physically demanding 211-mile John Muir Trail goes step by step up and over six Sierra passes topping 11,000ft. In for the long haul? Load up that pack and connect the dots from the heart of Yosemite to the pinnacle of Mt Whitney, the highest peak in the contiguous USA. Other sections of the park burst with giant sequoia groves and an endless array of wilderness trails, and they are no less sublime. The park’s busiest and most developed part, Yosemite Valley includes hits like the granite monster El Capitan, the precipitous drop of Bridalveil Fall, the green, often wildflower-strewn valley floor, and, front and center, glorious Half Dome. Synonymous with naturalist John Muir and a centerpiece of the national park system, Yosemite evokes nature’s grandeur – even to those who’ve never been.
Yosemite Falls is just one of the many iconic features in this quintessential national park © Christian / 500px 1.
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