[Transcript]

Panoramic Point Overlook

Shutterstock Image

We're on our way to our next stop, Panoramic Point Overlook, coming up in about 10 minutes. Just continue straight on this road, and when the road gets narrow ahead, be sure you watch out for other cars, and take it slow, okay?

So, you might be wondering, what's so amazing about Kings Canyon anyway? Well, other than being a stunning corner of the Sierra Nevada, Kings Canyon's claim to fame is that it's around 2,000 feet deeper than the Grand Canyon.

Yeah, you heard that right! While the Grand Canyon bottoms out at about 6,000 feet deep, Kings Canyon reaches 8,200 feet deep, or about 2,500 meters.

John Muir and Kings Canyon

Maybe the Grand Canyon ought to move over and share the limelight, yeah? John Muir, the famous naturalist I mentioned earlier, probably thought just that. Now, if you know anything about the father of our national parks, you know that he really loved Yosemite, and he spent a lot of time exploring that area. But, after four years of exploration, Muir decided that it was time for a different adventure.

It was the 1870s, more than 150 years ago and counting. The California Gold Rush was over, but people were still flooding to the Sierra Nevada in search of the next great mining bonanza. But they also came to build homesteads, to graze their livestock, and to log some timber.

Logging in Kings Canyon

It kind of feels like a no-brainer, doesn't it? I mean, just one giant sequoia could contain as much as 500,000 board feet of lumber. That's enough to build 50 small houses. So, even though sequoias were difficult to cut down and to transport to market, logging really took off around here.

It was around this time that John Muir visited Kings Canyon. He thought the canyon rivaled his beloved Yosemite Valley, and once again, Muir fell in love with the landscape. But what he really came here to do was climb Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the Sierra Nevada, in what is now Sequoia National Park.

Muir's Mountain Misadventure

But things didn't exactly go according to plan. Out there in the maze of mountains and forests, Muir got himself turned around and climbed the wrong mountain. Well, to correct his mistake, he tried to follow the mountain ridge over to Mount Whitney.

But in doing so, he ended up trapped up in the mountains after nightfall. At 13,000 feet up, in nothing but his normal hiking clothes. So, how did he make it out of that one? Well, to keep warm through the bitterly cold night, he danced.

Yeah. All night long, Muir kept his temperature up by strutting his stuff. And it worked.

Muir stayed alive, and he returned to town the next day. A few days later, he tried again, and this time, he climbed the right mountain. But misadventure aside, while in the mountains, Muir noticed that sequoias were getting chopped down at an alarming rate.

Advocating for Sequoias

So, just like he did in Yosemite, John Muir became an advocate for a new national park to protect these precious sequoia groves. But this was barely the beginning of the journey for Kings Canyon National Park. We'll come back to this story just a few paces down the road.