California Day 4 - Kings Canyon National Park

Day 4 began at the lodge in Cedar Grove; while the walls were paper thin, we were happy we stayed here at the Road's End.  It would have been a long trip in and out of the canyon in one day.  We knew we needed to get an early start on the Mist Falls trail for we were headed to San Jose in afternoon.  The Mist Falls trail started out without much shade; we did make note of this as sun protection on the way back would be key.  On this open part of the trail, we did see several tracks in the sand including bear.

 

 

After the second mile, we got into the woods again.  For much of the trail after this point, we were following the creek.

 

Parts of the trail were green and lush unlike other parts of the canyon where a match would have started a blaze.  After being in the area, we now understand how the Yosemite fire got so big quickly.

 

The view of the creek would come and go as we continued along.  There wasn't much elevation gain on this hike until the end...even then, it was a gradual 600 feet or so up to Mist Falls.

I would be interested to see what this trail is like in the Spring when the water would really be flowing - it had some power even in the late days of fall.

 



We arrived to mist falls (about 4.6 miles) without much effort and without seeing anybody. 

 

 

We sat for a quick snack, and then taking a look at the time, we decided to go forward towards Paradise Valley for no more than 30 minutes (60 minutes round trip).  From this point, the trail did start to head up.

We were fairly quickly awarded with some nice views.  We stopped to apply some sunscreen, talk about time and how much further to go, and decided to just proceed ahead a little to where it looked like we would get a view in another direction.  Rob proceeded ahead and I was packing up my sunscreen.  And then...

 

We were in a very high  rocky area where there was only one way to go on the trail - forward or backward.  I heard Rob start talking loudly saying "Hey, you are not suppose to be here...".  I had my wide brim hat on and looked up to see him waving around his hands in the air and turned my head to find a full grown BEAR right in front of me.  No more than 20-30 feet.  At the time I first saw him - he was up on a rock and I got a full view and focused in on his CLAWS.  When Rob first saw him - they were eye to eye on the trail - he focused in on his EYES.  AHGHGH!  We sat and talked for just a moment about what to do, and I decided to quickly scamper back on the trail...I started singing loudly "I Saw A Bear oh Way Up There!".  When away just a bit, I took my camera out of my pocket, turned it on, held it up backwards and shot...this is what I got.  Rob was quickly behind me; this bear was so close, the camera didn't even cross his mind...it was all about getting the heck out of there!

We safely made it out.  We did not continue further into Paradise Valley; instead, this was our designated turn around point!  Paradise Valley will have to come a different day.

 

The trip back towards the trailhead was much different; the sun was higher in the sky and we had some beautiful views.  Back in the woods, the sunlight brought out different colors than earlier.

 

 

Remembering the sun issue on the beginning part of the trail, we opted to take a route back on the other side of the river making a bit of a loop - we knew it would only add a half mile.  This side of the river was very nice!  There were open areas with sun, but also more dense, less traveled forest.

 

 

Getting back to the trailhead, there was nobody at the ranger station to report the bear sighting to.  So, we just ate our lunch, and got ready for our drive out of the canyon and into San Jose (about 5 hours).  The drive out of the canyon was stunning.  We decided to stop at one of the viewpoints and took the below photo.  The drive to San Jose was fairly easy; we got there around 7:00 pm.  We had made arrangements to visit our Aunt and Uncle at their beautiful home.  We got to visit with their neighbor, and also with miss Molly dog.  They had reworked their kitchen from the last time we were there and it looked fabulous.  We stayed in their guest bedroom and had the best sleep of the whole trip!

 

 

Kings Canyon definitely had some of the feel of Yosemite, but without the high volume of visitors.  I would be curious to know what the canyon is like in the summer.  The popular Rae Lakes backpack trip starts at roads end; there were probably 25 or so cars in the overnight lot the days we were there.  Certainly being here made me think about getting back to Yosemite sometime in the future.  I think I would also like to try to conquer the Rae Lakes loop one day - but I will have to practice a bit more with a 50lb pack.