Odometer: 60,042
Time: 09:15
HWY 180 east gets first through orchards again and then up to over 6,400 feet (1’950 Meter) elevation where the entrance to Kings Canyon National Park is. From there we soon descend to about 3,000 feet (900 Meter) into the canyon. The road follows Kings River, a beautiful mountain river, which carries a lot of water and has lots of white water rafts and strong currents around rocks. The water is very cold, so there is no risk for us to want to go swimming. We see some Sequoias up in higher elevations but not the really big ones yet. This park is more about the canyon and the river than about the Sequoias, but it is very impressive and offers awesome waterfalls and an abundance of walking trails. As it is very hot (even here it is over 100 F (38 Celsius)) we don’t do too much walking though. We watch out for bears from the car – unfortunately without any luck.
It is already early afternoon when we reach the back end of the canyon and we are running a bit tight on gasoline. Therefore, we decide to skip the Sequoia National Park for today and instead return to Fresno. We really want to have time for the park and rather come back tomorrow.
Overnight Stay: Days Inn, Fresno, CA
Dinner: …. Kebab, just on the other side of the road from the Hotel
