Stop two was small, quaint, secluded, and everything we could ever want in an RV park. We found wild turkeys, cows, a lake with a boat free to take out and fish (just saying… my fish was bigger than Josh’s), and FREE laundry…. Family owned and we we’re ready to become permanent residents at Grant Grove.
In Kings Canyon we tackled 3 hikes…. Big Baldy Ridge Trail, Heather & Pear Lake, and the Redwood Canyon Sugar Bowl Trail….
Big Baldy Ridge Trail was a 4.5 mile round trip to a beautiful view of Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park. The terrain, distance, and elevation change (~1400 feet) were on par with our prior hiking adventures in San Diego, but the views were quite the change in the Sierra Nevadas!
After Big Baldy, we relocated and make the 2 mile round trip walk to the infamous Mark Twain Stump… literally hard to get a picture to commemorate the moment because it was SO big! 26.5 feet diameter… we could have parked Juanita on it and had room to spare!
Hike two, Heather and Pear Lake were NEXT LEVEL… we titled this hike “chipmunks, rainbows, and bears, oh my!” Driving TO the hike it started to rain… and guess who didn’t check the weather and bring rain jackets, us! I was a bit nervous about the rain, that was until we saw one of the most beautiful rainbows at the start of the trail… breathtaking and empowering.
Running into bears on our adventures had been an ongoing family joke, that was until we saw NOT ONE, but TWO bears on separate occasions on this hike. After that second bear, the thousands of little chipmunks making noise in the brush were enough to make us jump. We also saw a marmot (giant squirrel) and a grouse at the top… and a deer at the bottom!
Oh, and did I mention the hike took us close to 7 hours, over 33k steps, just under 14 miles, and a 2900 foot elevation change ending at a LAKE at 9200 feet!
It was cold, our hands were stiff, we were wet from the rain, exhausted, but happy. The best way to describe the feeling at the top of that lake was blissful and proud. We had just taken on the most challenging hike of our lives, braved the elements (and did I mention BEARS!), and did it together.
The way up was called the Watchtower and the way down we took the Hump Trail and boy was that the correct order. The Watchtower was around the edge of the mountain and the views were so overwhelmingly stunning they were almost spiritual. The hump trail on the way down was a STEEP decline and if we had taken that trail on the way up, I (Hannah your narrator) would likely had to have been life flighted off that mountain after heart failure…. Sheesh!
After a MUCH needed day of rest we braved the woods for a third time and disappeared into the GIANT Sequoia and Redwood trees…. You can see the pictures, but you have NO idea. Even looking at the trees, touching them, standing IN them, I still was having trouble comprehending the true size of these beautiful giants. We went up the Sugar bowl rim and hiked down into the trees to find Hart Tree for some obligatory photo-ops before ending the 10 miler which almost seemed easy after the Lakes of Death, er I mean, Heather and Pear Lake Hike.
Fun Fact, did you know that it’s the Sequoia trees that win the girth battle, but it’s the Redwoods that get the title for height?! Also, the seeds that these giants sprout from are smaller than a penny… pretty damn cool.
It was almost sad leaving this RV park in King’s Canyon to relocate to a place in Three Rivers for the southern part of Sequoia exploring. We had the most amazing time here and my heart breaks to say goodbye already, but we are also hungry to see what else this forest and others have in store for us…
Getting Lost and Eating Cake 
You have just begun your journey and have experienced many wonderful thinks this country has to offer. Looking forward to your next post. Safe travels.
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