Kings Canyon National Park

The world's second-largest tree by volume, 268.1 feet tall with a 107.5-foot circumference at the ground and about 46,608 cubic feet of trunk, per NPS. President Coolidge named it the Nation's Christmas Tree on April 28, 1926, and Eisenhower made it a National Shrine in 1956, the only living thing so designated. A 0.5-mile paved loop reaches it, passing the Gamlin Cabin and the walk-through Fallen Monarch. The trail is paved but has steep sections, so NPS does not call it wheelchair-accessible. It is the one Grant Grove stop reachable year-round, the rest of the park's headline sights sit down in the seasonal canyon.

Measured from Spanish Mountain (10,051 ft) down to where the Middle and South Forks of the Kings River meet, the relief reaches roughly 8,200 feet, which makes this one of the deepest canyons in North America, about half a mile deeper than the Grand Canyon. The deepest point sits just outside the park in Sequoia National Forest. The canyon floor at Cedar Grove is glacier-cut into a U-shape; the upper walls are granite. John Muir wrote about it in 1891 as "a rival of the Yosemite," though the Mono, Yokuts, and Tübatulabal traveled and traded through it long before. The clearest single look is from the Junction View pullout on CA-180.

A river-bottom meadow on the floor of Cedar Grove, 4.5 miles east of Cedar Grove Village, ringed by granite walls thousands of feet high. The loop runs roughly 1 to 3 miles depending on which river crossings and the suspension footbridge are open in a given year. NPS lists the surface as unpaved and sandy, not firmly packed, so it is not wheelchair-accessible. Yellow-bellied marmots, mule deer, and black bears all use the meadow. The South Fork runs cold and fast here in spring and early summer. Cedar Grove sat on a Yokuts and Mono trade route through the canyon.

A 40-foot waterfall in Cedar Grove reached by a short paved, wheelchair-accessible path from the trailhead on CA-180, per NPS. It is the shortest walk to water in the canyon, the drive-up falls for families who cannot manage the 8-mile Mist Falls day. The surrounding River Trail lollipop toward Zumwalt Meadow runs about 3.9 miles round-trip if you want to keep going. Heaviest flow in spring snowmelt.

A marble cave at the base of the canyon on CA-180, between Grant Grove and Cedar Grove, inside the U.S. Forest Service's Giant Sequoia National Monument rather than the park. The standard guided tour covers about 750 feet of passage in roughly 50 minutes and is rated for all ages, past soda straws, draperies, and flowstone. The byway page lists it as a stop. The tour operator and hours have changed hands over the years, so confirm current operating status before driving. It pairs naturally with the drive down to Cedar Grove.

Created in 2000 and managed by the U.S. Forest Service, the monument wraps around the park and holds roughly half the world's remaining giant sequoia groves. CA-180 runs through monument land between the Big Stump entrance and Cedar Grove, so the big trees keep going well past the park boundary. The USFS manages it as a separate unit. The Resurrection Tree pictured stands in Big Stump Grove among old logging stumps, a marker of what nearly happened to these trees before the 1890 protection.

Thirty-six rooms in Grant Grove Village, about a half mile from a sequoia grove, the Kings Canyon Visitor Center, a market, a restaurant, and a post office, per NPS. Operated by Delaware North as the NPS concessioner. It is the most family-practical in-park base because Grant Grove is reachable year-round, unlike Cedar Grove. The adjacent Grant Grove Cabins add six cabin types, including tent cabins with shared bathrooms. The photo shows Grant Grove, a half mile from the lodge, not the building itself.

Twenty-one rooms at 4,600 feet on the South Fork of the Kings River, with a counter-service restaurant, a market, and a gift shop, per NPS. Open roughly May through mid-October, tied to the CA-180 season (the road closes mid-November and reopens around the fourth Friday in April). Operated by Delaware North. It is the deepest-into-the-canyon lodging, rustic and limited, and the closest beds to Mist Falls and Zumwalt Meadow. No cell signal in Cedar Grove. The photo shows the South Fork at Cedar Grove, where the lodge sits, not the building itself.

An overlook reached by a 0.5-mile paved walk from the parking area above Grant Grove, looking east across the glacial gorge of Kings Canyon to the High Sierra crest, per NPS. It is the drive-and-short-walk High Sierra view that does not require dropping into Cedar Grove. The last stretch of Panoramic Point Road is narrow and not recommended for trailers or RVs, and it becomes a ski and snowshoe route once snow closes it to cars.

A roadside overlook on CA-180, roughly 10.5 miles north of the Hume Lake junction, where the Middle Fork and South Fork of the Kings River meet far below, per NPS. It is the clearest single view of the canyon's depth from a car pullout, no hike required. The overlook is on the Sequoia National Forest stretch of the byway, and the road into the canyon closes mid-November to late April, so this is a spring-through-fall stop.

The braided green river on the Cedar Grove valley floor at about 4,600 feet, with granite walls rising thousands of feet on both sides, along the River Trail and the Zumwalt Meadow loop. The riverside walks here are the flattest family ground in the park. The water runs cold and fast in spring and early summer and settles to calmer gravel bars by late summer. Black bears forage the valley floor, so store food properly. Cedar Grove sat on a Yokuts and Mono trade route through the canyon.

An 8-mile round-trip from the Roads End permit station at the end of CA-180 in Cedar Grove, with about 600 feet of gain saved for the final mile, per NPS. The first miles are flat and open along the canyon floor before the climb to the cascade. NPS calls it a great all-day walk; it is the most accessible real waterfall hike in the Kings Canyon backcountry, but a full day, so older kids only. Pets are not allowed. Cedar Grove access closes mid-November and reopens around the fourth Friday in April.

A roadside waterfall along CA-180 between Boyden Cavern and Cedar Grove, a few steps from the parking pullout, on the Sequoia National Forest stretch of the byway rather than inside the park, per the NPS byway page. It runs heaviest in spring snowmelt and thins by late summer. A short leg-stretch stop on the drive down into the canyon, and an easy one for small legs between the bigger walks.