If you pass through Kings Canyon National Park to go to Grant's Grove and keep driving on highway 180, you will end up driving along one of the grandest scenic byways this great country has to offer with a plethora of amazing scenic overlooks to take in the glory of this park . Mammoth cliffs, mysterious caves, alpine lakes and endless canyons encompass this gem of a national park which seems to be off-the-radar of most tourists making this one of the best national parks to get some privacy on your hikes.
When we visited this area of the park, most of the land had been recently ravished by a terrible wildfire. Most of the land was barren but in no way did this take away from the incredible beauty of this often overlooked national park.
Here's a good example of a lot of the devastation we could see. Do not fret though, wildfire is good for these types of forests and soon, this portion of the canyon will be thriving once again.
The scenic overlooks along highway 180 in Kings Canyon offer some incredible views of the valleys and canyons. The colors of the burned areas make for some really cool photos as well.
Like this one looking out over King's Canyon National Park.
And also this one.
This is probably my favorite photo from our fun family adventure through King's Canyon. I was able to capture it at just the right moment with the sun just behind the top of these cliffs.
The area photographed above of the twisty road is probably one of the most photographed areas inside Kings Canyon. It is really cool spot to get out and view the windy road you just traversed.
We stopped along this portion of Highway 180 in King's Canyon to get some pics of each other and to just admire the enormity of this state park. Plus we just thought it was so darn crazy how few people we were seeing. We have driven on a lot of national scenic byways and this one, was by far the most peaceful and least crowded.
Another angle looking up to some craggy mountain tops from where we stopped on highway 180. Just about everywhere you looked, there was something beautiful to be seen.
The little white Jeep Cherokee we rented and drove through Yosemite, Sequoia and King's Canyon National Parks. This little thing was a trooper and had plenty of room for myself, Mel, Jake and her dad Matt along with all of our luggage. We had a lot of fun driving the jeep through all the twisty mountain roads.
Once we headed back out onto the road we were hoping to make our way to Bowden Cavern to check out the caves, hoping they would be a bit less crowded than the popular Crystal Cave.
To our grave disappointment though, after about three-hours of driving, we came to find out Bowden Cavern was closed and from the looks of it, closed for a long time. The odd thing was, there was literally nothing online declaring this Cavern closed, so how were we supposed to know?
We spent a couple minutes walking around and stretching our legs, checked out the river running nearby and then got this amazing snapshot of Mel enjoying the pure freedom that one feels when letting the mountain winds blow through your hair. Even though we were sorely disappointed in Bourne Cavern being closed, we were all extremely grateful that we got to explore this amazing National Park. For more info visit NPS.com .
