- Location: Kings Canyon National Park (36.720902, -118.970460)
- Travel Date: 8-24-2019
- Written: 9-2-2019
Hiking the Big Stump Trail is a must when visiting Kings Canyon National Park. The trail can range between 1.5 – 2 miles depending if you backtrack at the meadow and or visit the Sawed Tree.
The trail head is located in the picnic area to the left side of the bathrooms. Begin your hike by walking downhill to the forested basin, immediately you’ll be greeted by a giant sequoia on the left side called the Resseraction Tree. Continue along the trail staying to the left at the fork and you’ll quickly run into the Burnt Monarch. Looking across the meadow you’ll notice 2 saw dust piles. The saw dust piles are all that remains in this meadow from the mills that once operated here well over 100 years ago. Hike a short distance past the saw dust pile and you’ll encounter the Shattered Giant. The Shattered Giant is a large sequoia that fell across a small creek. The tree looks like it shattered into many pieces.
From the Shattered Giant, you’ll need to backtrack a bit, you should come up to the Mark Twain Stump. The history of the Mark Twain Stump can be found on the sign next to the ladder. Very interesting! Continue hiking and you’ll cross the road near the parks entrance. Once on the trail, you’ll begin to make your return towards the parking lot but not before taking a short but very very steep hike up to visit the Sawed Tree. The park ranger told me that the tree was in the process of being cut when the mill shut down and the was left with a huge scar. Today the scar has began to heal on both ends. The rest of the hike is very easy going and requires going under the road through a water drainage pipe and back into the parking lot.
Upon completing the loop, we were surprised to find several vehicles in the parking lot. After asking one of the rangers that was directing traffic we were informed that the parking lot was the location of Kings Canyons Dark Sky event that takes place once a year. Enthusiast were setting up their massive telescopes in preparation for a perfectly black night. The event is free to the public and allows you to look through scopes pointing at star clusters, Saturn, Jupiter and other galaxies many light years away. We stuck around until 10:30pm, viewed most of the scopes and gained some knowledge on our galaxy!
