Thanks for doing this. Heading to the Park in Oct 2024 and wanted to get an idea of what it will be like. Pulling a camper so a little worried about the steepness (grade) and curves.
Hope you & your Grandpa enjoyed visiting Kings Canyon National park for the 1st place. & yeah, the uphill climb to the National park entrance is insane.
Great video! You were right about the timberland changes coming at much higher altitudes in the Southern Sierra. You were at nearly 6000 feet, before you truly hit evergreen forest. Up north, on I-80 out of Sacramento, the evergreen forests begin at little over half that elevation.
Yes, Latitude plays a huge part in that. I knew it going in but was still surprised to see how long it took for the evergreen forest/lower montane forest to take over the landscape.
Kyle - Thanks for the memory trip us Hwy 180. I particularly like the fact that you give good comments along the way. When I lived in Sanger in the 1950's we used to make a pilgrimage to the General Grant tree at Christmas time as we lived in the nation's Christmas Tree City and the General Grant Tree was the nation's Christmas Tree. Next time you should take the drive down to Boyden Cave and Cedar Grove.
Nice one as usual: a few notes, if I may... 1) I got to be familiar with the 180 from Academy Ave. to Squaw/Yokuts Valley in 2020 during the Census-did some field work for them.. True, there's not much services past there, but the Bear Mountain Pizza Parlor in Squaw Valley is well worth a stop. 2) Went through the Grant Grove section on Census time one day to work Hume Lake-just showed my ID and the Ranger at the entrance station just waved me through... Didn't have time to stop on the way back as I was pretty tired. I do plan a return trip sometime. 3) That burned area you showed was from the 2015 Rough Fire.., which also threatened Hume Lake as well as Grant Grove. If you do go down Hume Lake Rd, you'll see a lot more that did burn. 4) It's been said by some that the Cedar Grove area of the Park-the bulk of it, mind, was established to prevent a planned extension of 180 as a Trans-Sierra Highway to pick up Whitney Portal Rd. and thus Lone Pine and U.S. 395 on the East Side. You do need to go up 168 from Fresno to Shaver and Huntington Lakes. 168 was also planned as a Trans-Sierra Highway through Kaiser Pass, Edison Lake, Paiute Pass, then down to Lake Sabrina and then to Bishop....
Awesome video. We're from Big Island of Hawaii. Took our first trip (1999) into Kings Canyon on that same route. Bottom of Kings Canyon awesome too. Sequoia National Park is a must. When you come across Cedar Grove Hotel, at least take a spin threw parking lot. Have been to these National parks a number of times. Back and forth, especially Yosemite National Park many times from 1999-2013. Thank you for taking us back. Wouldn't do it today because of the many bypasses. Mahalo (thank you) & Aloha
