On the rugged trails of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park

There’s something about the wilderness which has always attracted me. Smell of the rain, the majesty of mountains, the rawness of the dirt roads. So of course, backpacking to all national parks in the States is the newest addition to my travel bucket list. Sequoia and Kings National Park is full of wild history of giant trees, incredible caves, otherworldly landscapes, and outlaw trails to follow. This trip was a long cherished dream for me and two of my best friends, Tanay and Veer. Since we didn’t have campground reserved, we scouted through wilderness to find a perfect spot to set up our tent in dispersed camping area, which is always a bit of a gamble. (dispersed camping is not very safe bet but it gave us the sense of achievement of living in the jungle by ourselves)

Our first hike was through a path of legendary sequoia trees called the Kings Canyon Grant Grove trail. This forest of sequoia trees is home to the second-tallest living thing on earth, “General Grant”. In the picture below, you can see General Sherman (the largest tree in the world by volume) in all its dignified glory, standing tall and gigantic, making people look tiny like raindrops in the ocean. Some fallen sequoias turn into magical tunnels for kids and secret pathways to rivers and parks.

We stood on the rim of an expansive canyon, looked up at the powerful torrent of a waterfall, played with adorable puppies (we lost Veer hundreds of times on the trail and found him capturing random dogs on his goPro- such a dog lover, Veer), felt lucky and young looking at parents who have been awake way too long carrying baby strollers with screaming children, tried real hard to drink water from Tanay’s fancy backpack, roasted some quintessential camping food in campfire, mistook tree shadows for a bear and woke up with fear of death in the middle of the night, made several friends and talked with rangers, learnt not to be keep any food open outside our tent because that’s when the wild bears come down to the campgrounds to satiate their hunger, stopped mid trail to capture some pictures, randomly plucked a lot of flowers and pine cones, talked about life, grumbled how we would get vada pav, kacchi kairy and cucumber (famous indian jungle snacks) if we were in an Indian national park, spoke about how living in different cities and not able to meet often is the worst thing to happen to us, did some random gravity checks (well that’s just me), romanticized the evening light and had so much more fun, none of which I remember now.

If you’re a fan of blazing sunsets—and who isn’t?—in the center of the park, between giant forest and crescent meadow is a granite rock called moro rock with a stone staircase leading to the peak that sits at over 6,700 ft. It was clear and sunny when we started our hike to moro rock but a sudden drizzle, coupled with the cold breeze and the thunderstorm made the temperatures plummet in minutes !

The Kings Canyon Scenic Byway was one of the most amazing roads I’ve ever been on. Every turn afforded views of soaring mountain peaks and deep canyons. We did make a few stops at some of the scenic overlooks, such as panorama point, Lost groves, big meadow, roaring River Falls, lodgepole, grant grove visitor center. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see crystal caves and tunnel log being short of time.

The nighttime in Kings Canyon brought along fairy tales’ pixie dust. We could see the thousands of stars come to life and were blessed with an endless view of the galaxy that we live in. Sitting outside the tent, looking at this breathtaking light show was the most unforgettable memory of this sequoia trip. Lost in the moment, I forgot to take out my camera and ended up clicking no pictures- that’s how enchanting the view was!

The last evening was spent at the beautiful hume lake where you can hang up your hammock for a nap or jump in the water or simply go for kayaking while watching the beautiful sunset. It was possibly the most beautiful sunset I’ve witnessed in a very long time. It was my first time in a national park and it couldn’t have been better.

We wanted to have our special travel thing, so Veer suggested we  write a message to our 10-year-later-selves and put it into a mason jar and bury it. We call it “mason jar geotagging”- a way for us to relive our memories by finding buried messages when we revisit the same place after years. Whether it’s rediscovered by us, or unearthed by some other bright eyed, full hearted group of friends, or lovers making new memories in this enchanted place, I hope it brings the joy and peace that we found in the serenity of this place into their lives and hearts.

If you want a virtual tour of Sequoia, check out Veer’s super cool GoPro video: (Don’t forget to watch it in HD!)

Lots of love,

Madhura <3

P.S As I promised to keep my blog about travel, photography and fashion, I am taking a conscious effort in incorporating other two elements in my future posts.