In late August, 2007, my wife asked me to take her to King’s Canyon National Park in the eastern Sierras. She said she’d like to do it on the motorcycle. Now my wife doesn’t usually ask to go on long rides by motorcycle because she does like riding pillion on major highways. This time my wife said she’d drive her car to Fresno from our home on the San Francisco Peninsula – a distance of about 200 miles – and we’d then ride the bike together into the park. That sounded okay to me so we made reservations to stay 2 night at the Cedar Grove Lodge (http://www.sequoia-kingscanyon.com/cedargrovelodge.html) at the end of the road in King’s Canyon.
The weekend of September 28-30, we headed off to King’s Canyon. We were going to leave the car at a friend of ours in Fresno. My wife had the directions to our friend’s home, so I told her to lead and I’d just follow her there. We left the peninsula at about 8:30am and headed out HWY 580 to HWY 5. When we were on HWY 5 my wife was driving about 80mph, but there was a pretty good side wind blowing and the buffeting was uncomfortable. I followed her all the way to our friend’s home in Fresno where we had lunch before riding into the park.
The Map
The ride from Fresno into the park was quite pleasant until we go to the park entrance. By the time we had gotten up to about 7,000 feet at the park entrance, it was quite cold and overcast. We both had suitable gear on so the cold was not a problem. Near the park entrance is Grant Grove and the General Grant Tree, measuring 267 feet tall and 107 feet around, it is the earth's second-largest tree.
Giant Sequoias
Leaving Grant Grove, we rode 36 miles along Hwy. 180, to Cedar Grove Village, is known as the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway. This is a beautiful drive which zigzags down into the canyon passing wonderful scenery along the way. Soon after leaving Grant Grove, the landscape changes in to a more arid terrain. Then the road drops lown further and, in places, the road is cut into the sides of near vertical cliffs.
The road has many tight twisties and is nearly devoid of other vehicles. The riding is just spectacular.
We arrive at the Cedar Grove Lodge about 5:30pm. We checked in and, after I had a beer and some chips for a snack, we quickly got some dinner at the lodge café – making sure we got there before it closed at 7pm. Back at the room, we shared some wine before calling it a day.
Typical food served at the lodge café You can get something better than a burger if you want. Although I didn’t get them, the pork chops did look pretty tasty.
Day 2 The next morning, we had breakfast before heading off for a tour of Boyden Cave (http://www.caverntours.com/BoydenRt.htm). We arrived at the cave at about 9:50, with opening time at 10. We were the only ones there at 10am, so we got a personalized tour of the cave; just my wife, my self, and the guide. The tour was about 50 minutes long and was quite enjoyable. My wife and I like caves, so we tour all the caves we can find.
Inside Boyden Cave
After the cave tour, we had lunch back at the lodge before doing some hiking near the lodge. We hiked up to the Cedar Grove Overlook for some great views of the mountains and valley.
After hiking up to the Cedar Grove Overlook, we got back to the lodge at about 4:30. Still having some plenty of time left before sunset, we got on the bike and headed out to the end of the road in King’s Canyon to see the sights and to take a look at Roaring River Falls.
Day 3 The next morning we loaded up the bike and started off for home. We rode out to the end of the road one more time before riding out of the park. The return ride was again fantastic, great riding on twisty roads and hardly any other vehicles on the road.
On the way out we stopped for a look at the gas station at the King’s Canyon Lodge. The station has the oldest gravity feed pumps in the United States – gas was about $4/gallon - cars had a 6 gallon minimum purchase and and motorcycles were required to fill up. I just looked at the old pumps.
We stopped one more time at Grant Grove and took the short ride out to Panorama Point to look back at King’s Canyon before heading down the mountain.
After leaving Grant Grove we rode down the mountain on the way back to get my wife’s car in Fresno.
Approaching the central valley on the way to Fresno
We stopped at our friend’s home, had lunch, and headed home. My wife drove the car back on the freeway. I took a more leisurely and more enjoyable ride on back roads through the valley, passing through Firebaugh and the going over Pacheco Pass on the way home to Belmont.