NATIONAL SEQUOIA & KINGS CANYON PARKS & SEQUOIA NATIONAL FORES T/ GIANT SEQUOIA NATIONAL MONUMENT LATE SUMMER 2008 GUIDE Free Activities • page 3 page 8 • Facilities & Ranger Programs in Sequoia Road & Safety Tips / Finding Gasoline • page 5 page 9 • Facilities & Programs in Kings Canyon & USFS Shuttle & Highlights in Sequoia Park • page 6 page 10 • Camping & Lodging / Bears & Your Food Highlights in Kings Canyon & USFS • page 7 page 12 • Park Road Map Surprises in the Wilderness The quest to uncover the secrets and backcountry is commonly vertical. What surprises of wilderness draws 80,000 vis - isn’t forest, lakes, meadows, and streams itors every year to the backcountry of is covered by rocks or house-size boul - Sequoia & Kings Canyon parks. ders, snowfields, glaciers, and slabs of Some secrets are botanical: Why do rock. Wilderness isn’t simply big. It’s foxtail pine only grow at high elevation? huge. Little things get lost very easily. Some are avian: What is it about snow - Something else about wilderness: fields that attract rosy finches? There are times when you are so alone, Other wilderness surprises amaze and so completely isolated, knowing for cer - delight: A slow-moving stream quickly tain that not another pair of human eyes becomes a rapid torrent with many are enjoying this sight. You own it all — waterfalls. A boulder field suddenly water, earth and sky, forest, wildflowers, opens up to disclose a “pocket meadow” trails, rocks, marmot and cony, and the overflowing with teenie-weenie yellow rosy finch and occasional raptor that monkey-flowers. A back bear saunters come up on a thermal to look around past your kitchen at dinner time, ignor - before soaring home in their slow, ing your precious food supply to forage methodical, business-like way. for wasps in a rotten log. But it isn’t the lack of human contact Sometimes, surprises are historical. In that seeps into your bones in wilderness. 1942, a military navigation training flight It’s the surprising feeling of complete - went terribly wrong and the airplane, a ness. No longer just a speck in the world, Beech 18 AT-7, crashed in northern you feel part of something larger than Kings Canyon National Park. It wasn’t yourself, a piece of something important. until 1947 that the wreckage was discov - Wilderness reminds us that home is ered, and not until 2005 when climbers The rugged landscape where the plane went down in 1942 may reveal more secrets as its glaciers shrink. ©A. Post, USGS Ice & Climate Project more than a building with four walls. chanced upon the remains of the first of Home is a place where you belong. Over four crewmembers from the missing aircraft. Then, in 2007, another of the years, millions of people have visited these national parks. Each has the crew was found — by me. come to love and understand something different about the Sierra It surprises people that, in the most populous state in the union and Nevada. Isn’t it grand? That’s another of the secrets and surprises in a national park that sees nearly two million visitors every year, vic - awaiting us in these national parks. tims of an airplane crash could go undiscovered for so long. But wilderness is like that. The terrain in Sequoia & Kings Canyon’s craggy by Peter Stekel, author and frequent visitor to the park wilderness WELCOME TO SEQUOIA & KINGS CANYON Get to know these parks! WELCOME You may borrow the park map & Given the names of these parks, you expect giant trees and huge guide in Braille at visitor centers. canyons — and you won’t be disappointed. Yet the whole of the parks is even greater than the sum of their famous parts. BIENVENUE Rising from 1300’ to 14,494’, these parks protect a spectacular Une guide officielle est dis pon ible elevational range. This span from low to high means dramatic shifts dans les centres d’information. from hot foothills to shady forests to the cold High Sierra. It means extraordinarily diverse plants and animals living in extremely varied BIENVENIDOS conditions. It means steep roads and trails that climb mountains, Hay un folleto en Español and cold rivers that plunge down from their heights. disponible en los centros de visita. There is diversity, too, in the caretakers of this landscape. Bordering these two national parks is a national monument, which is part of a WILKOMMEN national forest. A U.S. Geological Survey Field Station conducts research Eine Landkarte ist auch in here. The Sequoia Natural History Association sells books and maps at Deutscher Sprache im Besucher visitor centers and contributes to education and research. The Sequoia Zentrum erhaeltlich. Parks Foundation supports significant park projects. BENVENUTI Other partners, public and private, cooperate with the Park Service to La traduzione in lingua Italiana meet a challenging mission — providing for public enjoyment while keep - della mappa e’ disponibile in tutti i ing the parks unimpaired for future generations. You are an equally impor - centri di informazioni. tant partner! Experience these parks fully: Learn all you can and join in preserving them. Together we can meet this inspiring goal: TThhee NNaattiioonnaall PPaarrkk SSeerrvviiccee PARK, FOREST, OR MONUMENT? PHONE NUMBERS ccaarreess ffoorr ssppeecciiaall ppllaacceess What is the difference between Sequoia and Kings Canyon EMERGENCY — DIAL 911 ssaavveedd bbyy tthhee AAmmeerriiccaann ppeeooppllee National Parks, Sequoia National No coins needed. Forest, and Giant Sequoia 24-Hour Park Information ssoo tthhaatt aallll mmaayy eexxppeerriieennccee National Monument? 1-559-565-3341 (NPS) Each is on federal land. Each www.nps.gov/seki oouurr hheerriittaaggee.. exists to benefit society. Yet each Na tional Forest Information has a different history and pur - 1-559-338-2251 (USFS) pose. Together they provide a www.fs.fed.us/r5/sequoia FEES H EL P YOUR PA RKS ! wide spectrum of uses. Yosemite Information (NPS) Most of your entrance and camping fees stay here. The parks National parks strive to keep 1-209-372-0200 invest them in important projects that improve visitor facilities landscapes unimpaired www.nps.gov/yose and protect park resources. In recent years, fees have paid for for future generations. They protect natural California Road Conditions repairing and upgrading roads, campgrounds, trails, picnic areas, and restrooms. They have improved visitor centers, updated and historic features 1-800-427-7623 (Caltrans) while offering light-on- exhibits, and modernized naturalist slide programs. the-land recreation. Partners in the Parks ENTR ANCE FEE O PTIO NS Park rangers work for The following organizations work the National Park together to provide this guide, first • 7-day pass for Sequoia & Kings Canyon, and for Hume Lake Service, part of the published in 1974 as The Sequoia Bark . District of Sequoia Na tional Forest/Giant Sequoia National Department of the Interior. It is published by the Sequoia Natural National forests, managed His tory As so ciation (SNHA) and Monument (GSNM) : $20 per vehicle (private, non-commer - under a “multiple use” concept, printed by Willems Commercial Printing: cial) or $10 per person on foot, bicycle, motorcycle, or bus. provide services and commodi - National Park Service (NPS) ties that may include lumber, Malinee Crapsey, Editor • 12- Month Pass for Sequoia & Kings Canyon, and for Hume cattle grazing, miner - 1-559-565-3341 Lake District of Sequoia Na tional Forest/GSNM : $30 admits als, as well as recre - www.nps.gov/seki all passengers in a private vehicle for one year from month of ation with and Sequoia Natural History purchase. Not valid at Crystal Cave. without vehicles. Association (SNHA) Forest rangers work 1- 559-565-3759 for the U.S. Forest www.sequoia hist ory. org • 12-Month: America the Beautiful Interagency Annual Pass : Cost $80. Valid for entrance fees at Federal recreation sites Service, an agency Sequoia Parks Foundation including National Parks, National Forests, FWS, BLM, & in the Department of 1-559-739-1668 Agriculture. www.sequoia fund. org Bureau of Reclamation. Admits all passengers in a single private Both agencies manage wilder - U.S. Forest Service (FS) non-commercial vehicle where per-vehicle fees are charged, or ness and other areas where they 1- 559-784-1500 the passholder plus up to 3 persons (age 16 & older) for per- strive for maximum protection of www.fs.fed.us/r5/sequoia person fee areas, for 12 months. Not valid at Crystal Cave. natural resources. For example, Delaware North Companies part of Sequoia National Forest Parks & Resorts (DNCPR) • Seniors: America the Beautiful Interagency Pass : $10 one- has been designated Giant 1-888-252-5757 time fee buys a lifetime pass for entrance fees for U.S. citizens & Sequoia National Monument to www.visitsequoia.com permanent residents 62 or over. (Previously issued Golden Age emphasize protection of sequoias. Kings Canyon Park Services (KCPS) passes remain valid.) Not valid at Crystal Cave. Parks, forests, and monuments 1- 866-KCANYON (522-6966) may have different rules in order www.sequoia-kingscanyon.com • Accessibility: America the Beautiful Interagency Access Pass : to meet their goals. Read “Where can I...” on the next page to learn U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Free to blind or permanently disabled U.S. citizens and what activities are permitted 1- 559-565-3171 permanent residents. Take appropriate documentation to any www.werc.usgs.gov where. Despite confusion over park visitor center. (Previously issued Golden Access passes names, we get a wide range of Page 1 illustrations ©SNHA by Rick Wheeler remain valid.) Not valid at Crystal Cave. benefits from these diverse areas. 2 LATE SUMMER 2008 SEQUOIA & KINGS CANYON NATIONAL PARKS Cr ystal Cave rocks! No tickets are sold at the cave, only at Lodgepole and Foot hills Free Activities visitor centers. Buy them at least 1-1/2 hours before the tour.