Kings Canyon

There is no beach here and nothing that works as a beach vacation. Swimming happens in the Kings River and a few mountain lakes. Snowmelt makes the river fast, cold and dangerous in late spring and early summer. By late summer the current slows, and pools such as the one at Muir Rock in Cedar Grove become a popular, chilly place to cool off after a hike.

Hume Lake, in the national forest between the park's two sections, has a small sandy shore and calmer water. Treat any swim as a short break on a hiking day, and take care: the river claims lives most years.

Eating here is practical. Grant Grove and Cedar Grove each have a lodge restaurant or grill and a small market. Hume Lake has a snack bar and store. The food is simple American fare: burgers, sandwiches and breakfast plates. Most visitors cook at their campsite or bring picnics, because choice is thin and the summer queues can be long.

The nearest real range of restaurants is in the Central Valley towns, including Fresno's Mexican, Hmong and Armenian cooking. They are over an hour away by winding road, so stock up before you drive in.

Human heritage here is slight. The General Grant Tree is officially the Nation's Christmas Tree and a national shrine to war dead. A few small sites recall the logging and homesteading era: Gamlin Cabin in Grant Grove, Knapp's Cabin near Cedar Grove, and the stumps of the Big Stump area. The visitor centre at Grant Grove explains the park's history and its sequoias. You come for the land, not for museums or architecture.

There is no nightlife. Evenings mean dinner, a campfire and, on clear nights, an extraordinary sky of stars well away from city light. The lodges serve a drink with a meal at most, and the park is silent soon after dark.

This is first-rank mountain country. Grant Grove holds giant sequoias among the largest living things on earth, and neighbouring Sequoia National Park adds the Giant Forest and Moro Rock along the Generals Highway. The scenic byway then drops into the Kings River canyon, a glacier-carved valley with granite walls rising thousands of metres. Its floor at Cedar Grove gives easy walks round Zumwalt Meadow and to Roaring River Falls, and a longer climb to Mist Falls.

Beyond the road's end lies the High Sierra: the Rae Lakes Loop, the John Muir Trail, alpine lakes and passes above 3,500m, with black bears and mule deer along the way. The canyon road is open roughly from late spring to autumn, and in winter Grant Grove becomes snowshoe and cross-country ski territory.

The best outing down the mountain is Fresno's Forestiere Underground Gardens, a maze of rooms, courtyards and fruit trees that one immigrant farmer dug by hand beneath the valley floor over four decades. Three Rivers, at the southern entrance to Sequoia, is a small foothill town of galleries and river cabins, pleasant for an afternoon.

That is about the whole list. Fresno and Visalia are otherwise ordinary Central Valley farm cities, and the neighbouring parks and forests are wilderness, not towns. Yosemite is too far for a comfortable day out, so most visitors spend every day in the mountains.

Families who like camping do well here. The paved loop round the General Grant Tree, the boardwalk at Zumwalt Meadow and the short path to Roaring River Falls all suit small legs. Children can earn a Junior Ranger badge, and sitting round a campfire under giant trees makes a lasting impression. Grant Grove's campgrounds and cabins make the easiest base.

There is nothing beyond nature built for children, though. The drive into the canyon is long and twisting, which is hard on travel-sick passengers. Keep young children well away from the Kings River, which runs fast and cold for much of the summer.

You need a car. No public transport serves Kings Canyon, and Fresno, the nearest airport, is about an hour and a half's drive from Grant Grove. From there the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway takes about another hour of switchbacks down to Cedar Grove. Linking with Sequoia National Park means the equally slow Generals Highway. The canyon road is closed in winter, roughly from November to spring. Once parked, the trailheads are within walking distance of the campgrounds and lodges.

Shopping is limited to the visitor-centre bookshop, lodge gift shops selling sequoia-themed souvenirs, and small markets for firewood, groceries and camping basics. Bring what you need from the valley.

Costs depend on how you stay. Camping is cheap, and one vehicle pass covers the park, its trails and the neighbouring Sequoia National Park. The handful of lodges and cabins have no competition, though, so rooms and meals inside the park are expensive for what you get, and the small markets charge mountain prices. Motels in Fresno or Visalia cost less but add a long drive each way. Visitors who camp and bring their own food keep this an inexpensive trip.

There are no performances. The closest thing is an evening ranger programme at a campground amphitheatre in summer, with talks on bears, sequoias and night skies.

What the park offers for unwinding is quiet. Mornings among the sequoias of Grant Grove are still and cool, phone signal is mostly absent, and evenings at Cedar Grove pass to the sound of the river under the canyon walls. That suits travellers who want to switch off completely.

Anyone hoping for treatments or a soak will be disappointed, though. The lodges have no spas, there are no baths, and no hot springs lie within easy reach.