John Muir Lodge - Kings Canyon National Park

General Grant National Park was established in 1890 to protect the Grant Grove of giant sequoia trees. Fifty years later, the park was greatly expanded and renamed Kings Canyon National Park for the larger eastern section of the park. While the two districts are separated by the Sequoia National Forest, both are adjacent to Sequoia National Park. A large part of the National Forest around the Grant Grove district of the park has been designated the Giant Sequoia National Monument.

Opened in 1935, Generals Highway connects the two parks. However, during winter it can be closed for extended periods of time as snow plows are busy keeping the roads open from the San Joaquin Valley to both Grant Grove Village in Kings Canyon National Park and Lodgepole and Wuksachi in Sequoia National Park.

When we visited both parks in March 2018, the highway was closed between Wuksachi Lodge on the south and California 180 on the north. This turned a 25 mile drive into a 100 mile drive and required the removal of traction devices, chains or cables, when descending from the Giant Forest and the addition of the same devices on CA 180 on the way to Grant Grove Village and the John Muir Lodge.

Opened in 1998 and remodeled in 2014, the lodge contains 36 rooms that are surprisingly modern for a park lodge. There were a few quirks to deal with, such as the lack of functioning credit-card type room keys due to lightning that fried the lodge's programming equipment. However, we never had to wait more than a few minutes to be let back in to our room. In addition, the storm that hit as we drove in left the lodge without Wi-Fi, but that is common with satellite-based systems during almost any precipitation event. The staff were friendly, the room was clean and well stocked with toiletries, and we didn't run out of hot water. We plan to stay at the lodge on our next visit, if there is a vacancy.

View from the parking lot

Parking lot side of the lodge

Front entrance

Covered porch

Frozen, but plowed parking lot

Great room

Main corridor

Entrance to Sequoia and/or Kings Canyon National Parks requires an entry fee of $30 per passenger vehicle for a 7-day pass. Any of the America the Beautiful passes may be used instead.

The park website is https://www.nps.gov/seki.