Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks

Before I tell you about our time in these National Parks, can I just take a moment to share how much I adore country and western music, which is all we've been able to pick up in the more remote areas we've been travelling through in this past week.

My absolute favs so far are:

- a love ballad by Brad Paisley which features the line "I'd like to check you for ticks"

- George Strait's Here For a Good Time where he requests "To hell with the red wine, pour me some moon shine"

- and the sure-to-be-a-classic by Jason Aldean who sings "And I can take you for a ride on my big green tractor". Song title in case you're wondering: Big Green Tractor.

Okay, so we have been skirting on the very edges of winter conditions and were lucky enough to have access roads open up with very nice timing for us to explore Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. 

What this means is while the roads have mostly been okay to drive (apart from the snow storms we've  had) we have been limited to where we could camp (most campgrounds are still covered in snow) and it has been COLD. 

Massive upsides of course are having the parks mostly to ourselves and the chance to see them at their most wintery wonderland best, with a fair bit of spring melt thrown in just to make the rivers ultra-impressive. A very good trade-off I think.

KINGS CANYON

We drove straight in on the 180 and found a campsite at Azalea Campground in the Grant Grove Village area of Kings Canyon. This was our base for 2 nights and the only campsite cleared and open in that national park (incidentally though, it was possible to free camp by parking on roadside pull-outs in the national forest controlled sections and some of those areas on the 180 were really nice beside Kings River).

On our first full day in the park, we drove the 180 down into Kings Canyon, checked out the Roaring River Falls and took a stroll around the Zumwalt Meadow loop. As we were hiking back to Bessie, the skies darkened and from that point onwards for the next 24 hours we had snow falling almost continuously. When we got back up out of the Canyon, we found the visitor centre and bought a book about tracks and scat (poo) - is there anything more interesting? - and took a short walk around General Grant, the world's third largest tree (by volume that is - there are ones out there that are taller or wider).

SEQUOIA

Waking up at our site, with everything draped in white was lovely (as unaccustomed as we Aussies are to it) and we set off down the 198 into Sequoia National Park where we found the world's largest tree. Yes, the very biggest one out there apparently. Although I tend to question whether people know about every single tree that exists in the entire world and wonder if, somewhere out there, there are bigger ones that aren't so look-at-moi.

Anyway, after we thoroughly spoiled the other tourists' experience of the General Sherman Tree, with our kids fighting with each other the whole time, we thought to go and unleash ourselves on the Lodgepole Campground. 

In the still-falling snow, Nath took a run up to the Tokopah Falls (5.5km return) while the boys and I listened to the Kaweah River flowing directly past Bessie.

With Nath raving about the trail, the following morning in welcome sunshine we all set off along the same track, now checking for tracks and scat with our new-found knowledge. Basically we are always on Poo Patrol now.

We saw some deer and porcupines and heard woodpeckers at work. No bears (fortunately) but given how much noise the boys make, I doubt we're going to surprise one on the trail.

The trail was indeed lovely and Nath was surprised by the views of high peaks around us that he'd missed in the falling snows of the previous day.

By lunchtime we were back at Bessie and hauled out back down the 198/180 and then north.