50 Fun Facts About Kings Canyon National Park

Kings Canyon National Park lies in the southern part of which mountain range?

It sits in Fresno and Tulare counties, north of and contiguous with Sequoia National Park, and the two are run as one unit.

The original 1890 park was named for a Civil War general who went on to become which numbered president?

It protected only a small area of sequoias; it took fifty more years to add the huge wilderness to the east and rename it Kings Canyon.

Which president signed the 1890 bill creating the original park at Grant Grove?

Signed October 1, 1890, it made the fourth US national park; the same bill also enlarged Sequoia and created Yosemite.

Which president signed the March 1940 bill that expanded the park and renamed it Kings Canyon?

It added over 400,000 acres of High Sierra, but the canyon floor and Tehipite Valley were left out to placate irrigation districts eyeing dam sites.

The General Grant Tree ranks where among the world's giant sequoias by trunk volume?

Only the General Sherman in neighbouring Sequoia is bigger; Grant was thought the world's largest until precise measurements in 1931.

Which president proclaimed the General Grant Tree the Nation's Christmas Tree in 1926?

Thirty years later Eisenhower gave it a further honour as a memorial to the war dead.

In 1956 Eisenhower declared the General Grant Tree what, the only living object with that status?

It serves as a memorial to Americans who died in war; the tree is now thought to be about 1,650 years old.

In which year was the big tree in Grant Grove named after the general?

A sawmill operator had discovered it in 1862; the general became the 18th president two years after the naming.

How big around is the General Grant Tree at ground level?

That is the third-largest footprint of any living sequoia; recent estimates put its age closer to 1,650 years than the 2,000-plus once claimed.

Which stand of trees is the largest giant sequoia grove on Earth, at more than 2,500 acres?

It also holds the tallest known sequoia at 311 feet and was the site of the park's first deliberate burn in 1963.

What happened when scientists deliberately burned part of the park's biggest sequoia grove in 1963?

It was the first fire in any park grove in 75 years and led to the park's first prescribed-burn program in 1972.

Which once-vast sequoia grove just outside Kings Canyon was almost entirely clear-cut in the late 1800s?

Only the Boole tree, its biggest, was spared; the ruined groves are regenerating but will take centuries.

What did easterners call the sequoia section shown at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition?

They refused to believe it came from a single tree; the Centennial Stump still stands in Grant Grove, where loggers' wives once held Sunday school on it.

How deep is the canyon of the Kings River at its deepest, just outside the park's western boundary?

That is about half a mile deeper than the Grand Canyon; the glacial valley on the canyon floor upstream is more than 5,000 feet deep.

The Kings River's 13,000-foot fall from the Sierra crest is North America's longest what?

Its Middle and South Forks were designated Wild and Scenic in 1987, ending decades of dam proposals for good.

Which Spanish explorer named the Kings River in 1805?

He called it Rio de los Santos Reyes, River of the Holy Kings; Spanish exploration otherwise largely bypassed the future park.

What is the only part of the park's vast eastern section reachable by road?

Highway 180 reaches it at the bottom of Kings Canyon, 35 miles beyond the park entrance; it closes in winter.

The road into Kings Canyon, finished in 1939 after ten years, was built partly with what labour?

A plan to push the highway on over Kearsarge Pass to the Owens Valley was defeated.

Which city spent decades trying to build hydroelectric dams in Kings Canyon?

It refiled its application repeatedly until 1963; the last dam sites finally joined the park in 1965, killing the idea for good.

In which year were the last proposed dam sites, including Tehipite Valley, added to the park?

The Kings River Conservation District had filed rival claims on the sites purely to block the big city's application.

Which Interior Secretary backed the 1940 expansion and hired a noted photographer for it?

Adams' images generated publicity for preservation while Ickes tried to reconcile locals who disagreed about development.

Which photographer was hired to document Kings Canyon to build support for the 1940 park?

His work for the Interior Department helped swing public opinion behind preserving the High Sierra.

John Muir's 1891 magazine article about Kings Canyon carried what title?

He wrote of a yet grander valley of the same kind and, in the 19th century, used the word yosemite for any such glacial valley.

Kings Canyon's likeness to Yosemite delighted Muir because it backed his theory that such valleys were carved by what?

Josiah Whitney's accepted theory held that earthquakes formed the valleys; Muir first visited in 1873.

What is the highest point in the park, at 14,248 feet?

It is the third-highest peak in the Sierra and holds the Palisade Glacier, the range's largest, just outside the park.

The long trail sharing its path with the Pacific Crest Trail through the park was completed when?

The John Muir Trail was finished through what is now the park's eastern edge, replacing rough sheepherders' pack trails.

Which sheepherder discovered and named Tehipite Valley on the Middle Fork around 1869?

Tehipite Dome, the largest granite dome in the Sierra, rises 3,500 feet above the valley floor, and Silver Spray Falls drops about 700 feet there.

Zumwalt Meadow, one of the park's few flat areas, formed how?

The Kings River cascades over four nested moraines in the canyon, each left by a different glacial period.

Which 1864 expedition led by William Brewer first surveyed Kings Canyon and named the Palisades?

They came down Native paths after failing on Mount Whitney and left over Kearsarge Pass, where they met prospectors who had crossed the Middle Fork.

Kearsarge Pass, at 11,709 feet, is ultimately named after what?

The USS Kearsarge sank the CSS Alabama; miners named the Alabama Hills for the raider, so rivals named their mine and the pass for its destroyer.

Which African American Army regiment built roads and trails in the park before the Park Service existed?

Led by Charles Young, these Buffalo Soldiers built the first road into the forest and the first trail up Mount Whitney.

Which Native people crossed the Sierra around the 1500s and settled by the Kings River?

A smallpox epidemic killed most of the Monache in 1862; the Yokuts of the Central Valley also came up to hunt and trade in summer.

Roughly what share of Kings Canyon and Sequoia combined is designated wilderness?

Congress designated over 85 percent of both parks as wilderness in September 1984 after years of controversy.

In which year were the administrations of Kings Canyon and Sequoia combined, an arrangement that still stands?

It was a wartime cost-saving measure that was simply never undone.

Roughly how many visitors did Kings Canyon get in 2017, compared with over 4 million at Yosemite?

Limited roads and services keep it the least visited of the major Sierra parks; its record year was 1974 with 1.2 million.

How far down the Kings River forks did Ice Age ice reach, carving the U-shaped valleys?

Below the two glaciated valleys the canyons are ordinary V-shaped gorges because the ice never got that far.

The park's surviving small ice bodies on the highest peaks formed when?

They are not Ice Age relics but products of recent cold periods, and are now melting so fast they may vanish within decades.

Which large predator was hunted to extinction in the park by the early 1900s?

Wolves were wiped out too; the loss of predators plus visitors feeding deer caused a herd explosion that the Park Service culled by shooting after 1940.

Which endangered animal did the Park Service release into the Sequoia-Kings Canyon area in 2014?

They share the forests and crags with mule deer, mountain lions and a healthy black bear population.

What is the name of the show cave in the deepest part of Kings Canyon, just outside the park boundary?

It formed in Mesozoic marble beneath the 2,000-foot walls of the Portals of the Kings and holds rare shield formations.

The Kings River does not reach the sea; where does it end?

Before irrigation diversions the terminal lake was one of the largest freshwater lakes in the western United States.

Which Southern Pacific agent may have pushed the 1890 park bill to hurt rival lumber interests?

The bill's origins remain murky; a meadow in the canyon carries his name.

Grant Grove, the park's only vehicle entrance, is about how far east of Fresno on Highway 180?

From Grant Grove Village the road runs another 35 miles into the canyon; there is no vehicle access from Highway 395 on the east.

What is the park's largest hotel, a 36-room inn in Grant Grove Village?

The canyon floor has only a small lodge and market after 1970s plans for a Yosemite-style resort were beaten back by public opposition.

Which sawmill operator discovered the General Grant Tree in 1862?

His partners the Gamlin brothers held the claim on the grove; their 1872 cabin is preserved, and Israel Gamlin gave up the claim so the trees could be saved.

How many people visited the original Grant Grove park in summer 1907, arriving by stagecoach?

A new road pushed the count to almost 2,800 by 1913, the year before the Army handed the park to civilian control.

How long is the Rae Lakes Loop, one of the park's most popular backpacking trips?

It climbs from Road's End through Paradise Valley to a chain of glacial tarns beneath 13,000-foot peaks.

Which backcountry waterfall in Tehipite Valley drops about 700 feet in several tiers?

The park's roadside falls near Cedar Grove are powerful but short compared with Yosemite's.

Which superintendent led the Buffalo Soldiers who built the first road into the forest?

The same troops cut the first trail to the summit of Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48.

For roughly how long have people inhabited the Kings Canyon area?

The Owens Valley Paiutes crossed from around Mono Lake, living mainly on acorns and deer.