By Gary and Marilyn Cowell

For the Sunday Gazette-Mail

THREE RIVERS, Calif. -- John Denver sang about "Almost Heaven West Virginia" and Colorado "Rocky Mountain High," but I guess he never went to Sierra Nevada in California.

This summer we went on an amazing 47-mile five-day backpacking trip in Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks in the southern Sierra Nevada on the Rae Lakes Loop Trail and saw some of the best nature has to offer.

Nestled in the southern Sierras, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks adjoin each other and are administered as one park. They don't share the fame and popularity of their northern neighbor Yosemite National Park; they get about 1.5 million visitors annually whereas Yosemite gets about 3.5 million, but they have their own unique attractions.

Kings Canyon (named after the Three Wise Men) is the deepest canyon in the Lower 48 at 8,000 feet. Mount Whitney is the highest point in the Lower 48 at 14,505 feet, and the General Sherman giant sequoia is arguably the largest living thing on earth measuring 36 feet across, 275 feet high, and weighing in at 1,400 tons! These are only some of the natural wonders that make this park a great destination.

Of course, with these parks being less popular the one drawback is available facilities. There is adequate lodging and dining within the park, but as with most national parks, it costs more with fewer amenities.

There are some towns outside the park, the closest being Three Rivers with limited but adequate facilities. Also, if you would rather ride than drive, the town of Visalia sponsors a shuttle service going to many of the points of interest within the park. As most of our time was spent in the backcountry, it wasn't an issue for us.

The route we picked is popular, so we reserved ahead. They start accepting reservations on March 1 for $15 per trip. I sent mine in then and got the trailhead departure date that I wanted. Within a month, reservations for our requested date and trailhead were closed.

At the trailhead is a ranger station where you register for each night. The route has designated camping areas, and you have to decide ahead of time where you are going to camp. There are no facilities in these areas -- it's pack-in, pack-out.

By Gary and Marilyn Cowell

For the Sunday Gazette-Mail

THREE RIVERS, Calif. -- John Denver sang about "Almost Heaven West Virginia" and Colorado "Rocky Mountain High," but I guess he never went to Sierra Nevada in California.

This summer we went on an amazing 47-mile five-day backpacking trip in Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks in the southern Sierra Nevada on the Rae Lakes Loop Trail and saw some of the best nature has to offer.

Nestled in the southern Sierras, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks adjoin each other and are administered as one park. They don't share the fame and popularity of their northern neighbor Yosemite National Park; they get about 1.5 million visitors annually whereas Yosemite gets about 3.5 million, but they have their own unique attractions.

Kings Canyon (named after the Three Wise Men) is the deepest canyon in the Lower 48 at 8,000 feet. Mount Whitney is the highest point in the Lower 48 at 14,505 feet, and the General Sherman giant sequoia is arguably the largest living thing on earth measuring 36 feet across, 275 feet high, and weighing in at 1,400 tons! These are only some of the natural wonders that make this park a great destination.

Of course, with these parks being less popular the one drawback is available facilities. There is adequate lodging and dining within the park, but as with most national parks, it costs more with fewer amenities.

There are some towns outside the park, the closest being Three Rivers with limited but adequate facilities. Also, if you would rather ride than drive, the town of Visalia sponsors a shuttle service going to many of the points of interest within the park. As most of our time was spent in the backcountry, it wasn't an issue for us.

The route we picked is popular, so we reserved ahead. They start accepting reservations on March 1 for $15 per trip. I sent mine in then and got the trailhead departure date that I wanted. Within a month, reservations for our requested date and trailhead were closed.

At the trailhead is a ranger station where you register for each night. The route has designated camping areas, and you have to decide ahead of time where you are going to camp. There are no facilities in these areas -- it's pack-in, pack-out.

We needed food for five days, tent, sleeping bags, cooking equipment and change of clothes. Today's equipment is designed to be lightweight so we managed. My pack weighed 45 pounds, and my wife's weighed 25 pounds.

We picked the third week in August and experienced weather that was perfect for the occasion. We enjoyed cloudless blue skies during the day, and we were treated to the most fabulous night sky. It was a new moon at high altitude with no surrounding light. We saw more stars than we have ever seen in our lives. We saw the Milky Way stretched from horizon to horizon and a few shooting stars.

Our trek started at 5,000 feet, and we hiked up Paradise Valley for 11 miles to our first camp site at 7,000 feet. We went past Mist Falls, the tallest in the park, and saw our first black bear right near the trail. A local hiker told us that the valley has had a bear problem, and I thought, "We're invading their home; maybe the bears have a people problem."

On our second day we had another 11 miles to go with a lot of up and down to over 10,000 feet. It was a hard two days, but we needed to get in some distance because on the third day we had Glen Pass to go over, which was the highest point on the trip at 11,978 feet.

Once over the pass, the next couple of days were downhill, and we just enjoyed the scenery. The area has many lakes and ponds that combined with the mountain backdrops made for one amazing scene after another.

We did have a bit of excitement on our fourth and last night. After setting up camp as I was getting into my pack, a rattlesnake crawled out from under it. I've heard that they tend to be nonaggressive, and that was the case here. After rattling once, he slowly crawled off so I got a long stick and relocated him some distance away.

Then after we settled in for the night and it was getting dark, a mother bear and her cub came into our campsite. After catching our breath, we started clapping and shouting and they ran off. Shortly after that we heard more shouting, and after listening for a while we heard her run out of two other campsites. On our last day we saw one more black bear near the end of the trail -- a fitting end to our adventure.

We spent our last day in the park in an area known as Giant Forest where the General Sherman Tree is located. We spent the day at a leisurely stroll through the giant sequoias. Massive doesn't begin to describe these natural wonders. To experience something this unique and special found in only a few places in the world was truly something for us to cherish.

Information on and forms for making reservations can be obtained at www.nps.gov/seki/index.htm. Information can also be found at www.sequoia.national-park.com.

Gary and Marilyn Cowell live in Ravenswood and can be e-mailed at gecow...@yahoo.com.