On July 4-7, 1974 I backpacked 26 miles round trip to Volcanic Lakes in Kings Canyon National Park with Gil Beilke, Brian Twohey, Dan Curley, Kevin Twohey, Scott Morton, Don Guttman, Scott DeHart, Dave Hoffman and Bill Taylor. We departed San Diego about 5 p.m. Wednesday and drove via Interstate 5 and State 99 to KOA campground at Goshen outside Visalia, arriving about 11:30.
Gil got us up about 5:30 a.m. and after a quick breakfast we drove to roads end in Kings Canyon, and were on the trail up Copper Creek by 10 a.m. This is a long but well graded trail. It was warm but we just kept plugging along.
I ate lunch at the first water, about 11:50, Caught up with Dave and Bill at Lower Tent Meadow and ate second lunch. Dave was not feeling too good. We continued up the trail and with a slower pace and rest stops for pictures, Dave soon felt better. We finally topped the ridge at 6 p.m. after climbing 5300 feet - Whew! We continued down into Granite Basin where we found the rest of the crew at a nice campsite above the meadow. Some mosquitoes.
After a good night's sleep, most of us hiked over to Granite Lake for a look before continuing to Granite Pass - fine views. Gil had left early and took his pack to a trail junction then went off to explore Glacier Valley.
Don Guttman and Scott DeHart took the trail down and around to the lowest Volcanic Lake (3/4 mile above trail). The other five of us took a cross country route to Volcanic Lakes. This route produced some spectacular scenery of the Volcanic Lakes region. We made camp about 2 p.m. and the rest dribbled in during the afternoon. Kevin and Brian caught three nice sized trout.
The next day we all followed the trail up to the top of Dead Pine Ridge where the views of Kennedy Valley were outstanding. We found ducks leading to the cross country route down into the valley - an easy scramble. In the valley we found many many mosquitoes so didn't stop much - it is very nice.
The trail continues to the head of the valley and then climbs steeply to Kennedy Pass. There are some nice campsites about half way up. After a lunch stop in route, I made the pass about 2 p.m. Most of the gang climbed Kennedy Peak.
The views of the Goddard and Palisade regions were outstanding. We sat around enjoying the view, nice weather, and visiting with other hikers. We finally left around 4 p.m. and started down - past Frypan Meadow (good camping) to the Lewis Creek crossing below where we arrived about 7 p.m. and found the campsites full so had to camp on the trail nearby - no mosquitoes.
We were up early on Sunday and enjoyed a cool hike down to the road - arrived about 8:30 a.m. - where we shuttled the cars and were on the way home about 10 a.m. arriving home about 6:30 p.m. after a great trip.
Route map for Volcanic Lakes trip in Kings Canyon National Park 1974
