While not quite as glamorous as Yosemite Valley, Kings Canyon is incredibly beautiful, featuring many marvelous rock formations. The park itself is unusually shaped, divided into two different parts. Sequoia and Kings Canyon together are shaped something like your left hand if you look at it palm up. Sequoia would be your palm, while Kings Canyon would your thumb and (very long) fingers. Kings Canyon National Park has a space outside the park boundary (in the Sequoia National Forest) analogous to the space between your thumb and forefinger. The thumb holds Grant Grove, another amazing place for viewing Giant Sequoias. The actual canyon starts in the Sequoia National Forest, and only the deepest parts of the canyon are actually in the park. The Kings Canyon Scenic Byway (CA 180) traverses this amazing canyon. There is no road that entirely crosses the park from the valley to the high Sierra. Although Mt. Whitney is technically in Sequoia National Park, on the east side, the only road access to it is via CA 395 from either Yosemite or southern California.
Although Eric and I enjoyed Sequoia National Park very much, we felt that our drive over the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway was the most special part of our visit.