Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

Kings Canyon National Park

Most people who visit Kings Canyon National Park go no farther than a 10-minute drive inside the entrance. They stop at Grant Grove, behold the stand of sequoias led by the 267-foot General Grant Tree and head home.

Not that these colossi aren't impressive, but they are merely the beginning of one of the best outdoor family destinations in the West.

Drive on for 30 minutes through spectacular mountain vistas and you'll enter the real Kings Canyon: Cedar Grove. Just getting here is an E-ticket ride on a road dangling thousands of feet above a gorge cut by the south fork of the Kings River. At the end of the road--there's only one way in and out--rustic Cedar Grove remains as untouched by the hordes as it was when my family started coming here five decades ago. There's no gas station. No cellphone service.