Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, California

Kings Canyon National Park is a national park in the southern Sierra Nevada, east of Fresno, California. The park was established in 1940 and covers 461,901 acres. It incorporated General Grant National Park, established in 1890 to protect the General Grant Grove of giant sequoias.

The park is north of and contiguous with Sequoia National Park; the two are administered by the National Park Service jointly as the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

These two national parks are located next door to each other in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains, and both are famous for their enormous giant sequoia trees.
These trees can grow to be more than 300 feet (90 meters) tall and their trunks can be as much as 100 feet wide. Sequoia National Park, which was established in 1890, is also home to Mount Whitney, which is the highest point in the contiguous United States.

Interestingly enough, Kings Canyon boasts the deepest canyon in America. The parks are also home to a lot of wildlife species, including bobcats, gray foxes, bears and mule deer. If they're lucky, visitors might even be able to spot bighorn sheep or mountain lions. Both parks are popular with backpackers and hikers, and there are 14 campgrounds available for visitors.

One portion of the South Fork canyon, known as the Kings Canyon, gives the entire park its name. Kings Canyon, with a maximum depth of 8,200 feet, is one of the deepest canyons in the United States. The canyon was carved by glaciers out of granite.

Kings Canyon is a wide glacial valley featuring tall cliffs, a meandering river, green vibrant meadows and waterfalls. A few miles outside the park, Kings Canyon deepens and steepens becoming arguably the deepest canyon in North America for a short distance.