Harvey the RV and Me: The Land of the Giant Kings (Kings Canyon National Park Post)

Timber enjoyed the whole selfie thing a bit much, and so began taking them herself.

Look at that happy doggie smile!

Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks are both parts of the Southern Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. Since 1943, the parks have been jointly administrated due to their proximity and their protection of the "big trees." Sequoia is the older of the two, holding the title of America's second National Park, established in 1890. A week later, Congress tripled its size and created the Grant Grove National Park. Thanks to the work of the Sierra Forest Reserve, more land was protected in 1893. In 1926, Kern Canyon merged with Sequoia. In 1940, Kings Canyon National Park was created and merged with Grant Grove. In tandem, the two parks protect more than half of the remaining Sequoia groves.

The General Grant Grove

The Sequoia Tree (Sequoiadendron giganteum) is naturally found only in the Sierra Nevadas of California. They are the world's largest trees, and the biggest living thing by volume. The bark is fire resistant, and is highly resistant to decay because of natural chemicals in the wood. Historically, some have tried to log the trees, but the wood is fibrous and brittle, and a lot of manpower was required to fell a Sequoia. This resulted in many trees breaking when they were cut, and so Sequoia logging companies often failed miserably. Keep in mind, there is no way to capture the size of these trees in a picture, but I tried my best!

The General Grant Tree - The Nation's Christmas Tree.
In 1924, Charles E. Lee was inspired by a little girl who said, "what a wonderful Christmas Tree it would be!" and so, in 1925, on Christmas Day at noon, the tree is dedicated as the nation's Christmas Tree. The ceremony continues yearly.

Sequioa trees need fire to release seed cones. Here is a fire scar in one of the trees.

This next Sequoia, has been a fallen log for many, many years. It is called The Fallen Monarch, or initially, The Napoleon Log, after the Fall of the Napoleonic Empire. Over the course of history, this log has been used as a shelter, a home, and two brothers who initially had a logging claim found this log and used it as a hotel, restaurant, and saloon!

Remember those two brothers from above? They built this cabin in 1872. They lived here until 1878. The cabin was then used as a station for the US Calvary that patrolled the park until 1913. Later it was used by the first Park Ranger.

The Centennial Stump is the remains of a Sequoia which was cut down for demonstration at the World's Fair in Chicago. However, the reassembled tree was discarded as a California hoax by the fair-goers.

To show the width of the tree!

Some views of the Canyon

We then stopped at Boyden Cavern, a cave in the National Forest surrounding the Park. Boyden Cavern bears the name of its original occupant, Putnam Boyden who lived in the cave in the late 1800s until his death. He used to charge visitors who could climb up to the cave's mouth (Today, a steep five minute walk up a paved path with stairs in places) 10 cents for a tour of the cave. However, he didn't get many takers due to the steep climb that would be required. Once, when Boyden was exploring the cave, he slipped and fell into the King's River which carved both the canyon and the cavern. This fall extinguished his lantern as well as wet his matches, so he couldn't light his lantern again. To his dismay, he was plunged into total darkness. On our tour, at the sight of his accident, all the lights are turned off, and we get to experience the total darkness for ourselves. It is impossible to even see your hand a few inches from your face. So how did Boyden get out? He crawled through the riverbed on his hands and knees until he reached the mouth of the cave and saw daylight. Unfortunately, he soon contracted pneumonia and died on his way to the doctors.

Do you see the ship?

This room is called the bridge room because the bridge was built by the CCC in the 1930s, and has never cracked or otherwise required a repair and is entirely the original.