miles, you’ve had limited views of the deep hole created by the Kings River. At this pullout is a staggering view straight down to where Middle and South Forks converge thousands of feet below. Near this confluence, the two canyons reach their greatest depths. When measured from the top of Spanish Mountain, the South Fork Canyon at 7,800 feet is one of the deepest gorges in North America, more than 2,500 feet deeper than the Grand Canyon. While the Middle Fork is wild and virtually inaccessible except by hardy hikers, the highway continues upstream along the South Fork into the heart of Kings Canyon.
Ten Mile Creek: The highway crosses a bridge over Ten Mile Creek, which carries water released from Hume Lake dam down to the Kings River. Between here and Yucca Point, the road closely follows the creek downstream, providing a definite contrast between the riparian foliage alongside the creek and the chaparral-covered hillsides away from the water.
Junction View (stop 16)
Kings Canyon Lodge: This rustic resort has been in operation since the late 1930s, offering cabin-style lodging, a restaurant, ice cream bar, and gasoline from the oldest double-gravity gas pumps in the country.
Yucca Point Trailhead: The highway drops into the inner gorge of Kings Canyon near Yucca Point, a point on a knife-edge ridge 200 feet above the road, which also serves as the westernmost boundary of Monarch Wilderness. Watch for the namesake plant through this section, especially in late spring and early summer, when the upper part of the plant is covered with white, bell-shaped flowers. A moderately steep, 2.5-mile trail descends more than 1,000 feet from the trailhead to the confluence of the Middle and South Forks of the Kings River. Anglers accessing the South and Middle Forks of the Kings River are this trail’s primary users.
Lockwood Creek Vista: A half mile from Yucca Point is a broad, paved turnout on the left with an interpretive sign about birds commonly seen soaring above the canyon. The visual highlight of a stop here is in the opposite direction, especially when a year with abundant water enhances a beautiful display of cascades and falls on Lockwood Creek, which tumbles down a narrow, steep, and rocky side canyon. Shortly beyond the turnout, the highway crosses over the creek and continues down toward the river amid the towering metamorphic rock walls of the canyon.
Convict Flat Picnic Area: Construction of the Kings Canyon Highway began in 1929 and took ten years to complete. Much of the work was done by convicts. The picnic area resides on the former site of the prisoner camps.
Horseshoe Bend Vista: The pullout at Horseshoe Bend offers a dramatic view of the canyon, where high, unbroken cliffs composed of hard metamorphosed rock forced the South Fork to take a winding detour.
Waterfall in Lockwood Creek Canyon (stop 20)
Boyden Cavern: On the right-hand side of the highway, just prior to a bridge over the South Fork, is the turnoff for Boyden Cavern. The west side of the Sierra has considerable deposits of marble. Caves are formed when underground channels of water erode away some of the minerals in such marble over time. A private concessionaire, under supervision of the Forest Service, offers 45-minute tours of Boyden Cavern from April through November. The tour visits many extraordinary features, including various stalagmites, stalactites, draperies, and columns.
Beyond the first bridge over South Fork Kings River, the highway closely follows the river upstream, which can become quite a torrent during spring snowmelt.
Grizzly Falls Picnic Area: A small picnic area (restrooms) on the left side of the highway under the shade of mixed forest provides a pleasant rest stop. Just 50 yards above the picnic area is Grizzly Falls, which drops 80 feet over a ledge of granite. The falls can be quite robust in spring and early summer, when melting snow on the south side of the Monarch Divide high above fills Grizzly Creek and its tributaries.
Deer Cove Trailhead: A small parking area on the left-hand side of the highway marks the beginning of the Deer Cove Trail, an infrequently used, dead-end trail that climbs into the Monarch Wilderness (see Trip 70).
Turnout: This unmarked turnout offers another chance to stop and view the South Fork.
Kings Canyon National Park boundary: After the long, winding descent across Forest Service lands, you once again enter the national park, at the geological gate of the more famous section of Kings Canyon. Below here, the canyon has a V-shaped aspect, formed by the erosional forces of the South Fork Kings River. Above, the canyon adopts more of a U-shape, with a broader valley floor and steeper canyon walls composed of the characteristic Sierra granite, which has led geologists to the conclusion that glaciers were primarily responsible for the formation of the upper part of Kings Canyon.
Lewis Creek Trailhead: Shortly past the park boundary, the highway spans Lewis Creek and continues 0.2 mile to the trailhead on the left shoulder (see Trips 73 and 74). The creek is one of the many watercourses born high up in the mountains that tumble down the steep wall of the canyon toward a union with the South Fork. Similarly, since the only way out of the canyon is up, most of the trails starting in the bottom of the canyon climb steeply.
South Fork Bridge: Thinking back to the first bridged crossing of the South Fork, the river was a boulder-strewn torrent racing toward the San Joaquin Valley below. Here, the broad and shallow river has adopted a more placid course because it’s flowing through the flatter and wider valley created by the glaciers.
Just prior to the bridge, a paved road branches
