Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Provide Updates to Estimated Reopening Dates Ahead of the Memorial Day Weekend

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Kings National Parks
Kings Canyon & Sequoia National Park. Image: NPS / D. Jeffcouch

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks personnel continue to make progress with snow clearing, damage repairs, and all the various tasks associated with recovering from a historic winter season. Memorial Day weekend is the usual kick-off to summer in the parks, but unfortunately, this year, access to the world’s largest tree (by volume) and the surrounding Giant Forest and Lodgepole area won’t be open in time.

Along the General’s Highway between Grant Grove in Kings Canyon National Park and Giant Forest in Sequoia National Park, there are two sites with severe road damage. Crews accessed one site last week and made temporary repairs to restore administrative traffic flow. This week crews made it to the second site. Based on repair assessments and snow clearing that still needs to happen, with only a couple of weeks left before the holiday weekend, the difficult decision was made to postpone the reopening.

We encourage visitors to explore areas that are open this upcoming holiday weekend.

Current status and projected reopening timeframes as of May 11:  

Sequoia National Park 

The Foothills area between the Sequoia entrance station and Hospital Rock – CURRENTLY OPEN

Access to lower elevation camping, trails, wildflowers, wilderness, rivers, and more. No access to giant sequoias.

Area Advisory: Rivers are very cold and very swift with fresh snowmelt. The soil near and along the rivers is wet and unstable. It can collapse unexpectedly under the weight of people, including children, and result in falls into the river.

Due to road construction, you may experience short delays in areas where the road is restricted to one-lane traffic flow.

The Giant Forest/Wolverton/Lodgepole/Wuksachi Areas

Access to giant sequoias, the General Sherman Tree, camping, lodging, wilderness, Moro Rock, Tunnel Log, and more.

Access via Highway 180 through the Kings Canyon entrance station:

  • Estimated Reopening: June 2 – June 9

Access via Highway 198 through the Sequoia entrance station:

  • Estimated Reopening: July 1

Crystal Cave

Closed for 2023 due to significant road damage along Crystal Cave Road.

Mineral King

Due to severe road damage along Mineral King Road, both inside and outside the park boundary, no vehicular public access is anticipated before August, and likely to be later. Other types of access will be assessed in June after Tulare County completes temporary repair work, and park personnel can go in and assess the damage within the park boundary.

Kings Canyon National Park   

Grant Grove – CURRENTLY OPEN: Access to giant sequoias, the General Grant Tree, winter snowplay, camping, lodging, restaurant, trails, and more.

Cedar Grove: Due to severe road damage along the Highway 180 corridor, outside the park, between Grant Grove and Cedar Grove, Caltrans does not expect repairs to be completed before the end of the summer season. This means public access is not expected into the Cedar Grove area of Kings Canyon National Park for the 2023 summer season.

For trip-planning information and the most current park conditions, we urge visitors to visit our website at nps.gov/SEKI. Updates to the reopening schedule are made on the Current Conditions web page weekly on Thursday afternoons.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks lie side by side in the southern Sierra Nevada in Central California and serve as prime examples of nature’s size, beauty, and diversity. Nearly two million visitors from across the U.S. and the world visit these parks for the world’s largest trees (by volume), grand mountains, rugged foothills, deep canyons, vast caverns, the highest point in the lower 48 states, and more. Learn more at http://www.nps.gov/seki.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, CA.
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, CA.

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