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I hiked in Kings Canyon National Park in the Grant Grove area.
It was late afternoon when I started, and the parking lot for
the General Grant tree was only half full. The RV/bus lot was
completely empty as I walked across it to the trailhead.
The trail starts out as a paved fire trail, downhill all the way.
I soon passed 4 hikers coming in the opposite direction. After
that, I had the trail completely to myself.
Lion Meadow
Quickly I came to Lion Meadow, very small compared to Crescent
and Log Meadows in Sequoia National Park. After taking a photograph,
I continued on the loop trail, which is singletrack. It passes
a dead Sequoia tree, the Dead Giant which is the namesake of the
loop trail.
After a short climb I was out of the cover of the forest and surrounded
by short bushes. The trail heads south and under the cover of
a few trees is a nice view of Sequoia Lake below. The lake is
not actually part of the national park, but there is a trail which
leads down to it.
Sequoia Lake
The trail continues east. As I started off through the bushes,
I began to fully realize I was completely alone in bear country.
I started whistling to make sure any bears in the area would know
I was coming. Sneaking up on a bear is a very bad thing to do.
Back on the fire trail, I felt safer. I was still alone, but at
least I could see all around me. I headed back up and made a left
onto the North Grove trail. This is another fire trail (unpaved).
As the name would suggest, it passes through a grove of sequoias.
The late afternoon light had a pleasing effect on them, but nothing
as nice as the Congress Trail in Sequoia NP. There were some small
refreshing patches of green meadows here and there, but there
was also the depressing sight of dead trees amongst the sequoias.
The North Grove trail ends up back on the main paved fire trail,
and I took that back to the trailhead.
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