Route Description
Below Longley Pass, where the route crosses over the Great Western Divide and reaches its high point of 12,434 feet.
This route description is intentionally general, and is simply meant to help you broadly understand where the route goes. For a visual reference, view this overview map. And for a navigation-worthy route description, download the King Canyon High Basin Route Guide.
Starting at Lodgepole, the Kings Canyon High Basin Route (KCHBR) climbs towards Mt Silliman, a distinct high point on the Kings-Kaweah Divide. It parallels or stays atop this ridge past Mt. Silliman, into Tablelands, just under Elizabeth Pass, to Copper Mine Pass, where the route plummets into Cloud Canyon.
An old mining track and the Colby Pass Trail lead to Colby Lake. From there, the KCHBR climbs towards Talus Pass, the first of several high passes below the Great Western Divide, which separates the Kings and Kern Rivers and which sees little traffic despite having eight 13,000-foot peaks. At Longley Pass, the route reaches its highest point (12,434 feet, 3800 meters) and crosses to the Divide’s east side before dropping 4,000 vertical feet to Bubbs Creek.
Early-morning ascent up Black Giant Pass. The hut atop Muir Pass is on the ridge behind the lake.
The route has a consistent pattern for the next 35 miles. From a low point beside a major tributary of the Kings River — Bubbs, Woods, South Fork, Palisades, Middle Fork — climb steeply to a high, remote, trailless basin — Gardiner, Arrow, Lake, Dumbbell. Summit at least one pass before dropping steeply to the next tributary. Repeat. In late-spring and early-summer, these river fords are perhaps the route’s most notable hazards. This segment is interrupted by just 2 miles of on-trail hiking.
The next high basin — Palisades — would entail an unjustifiable effort and is therefore bypassed. Instead, the KCHBR joins the John Muir Trail to Helen Lake, from where it jumps over Black Giant Pass into the final basin, Ionian. The route down Enchanted Gorge to the Middle Fork is the most rugged, committing, and isolated section of the entire route. Bring you A-game — it’s not a place to make mistakes.
If there were a road up the Middle Fork to Simpson Meadow, the KCHBR would probably end here. But there’s not, so the route instead grinds 5,500 vertical feet over the Monarch Divide — following the same sequence of valleys and passes as Steve Roper’s Sierra High Route from Glacier Valley to Grouse Lake — only to drop 6,500 vertical feet to the South Fork and Road’s End, the route’s northern terminus.
Disappearing Creek and Enchanted Gorge
Andrew
In June 2015 I purchased an online copy of your Kings Canyon High Basin Route. Instead of doing your route that year, we walked Roper’s Sierra High Route from late July until the end of August. Great walk and we decided we must return to do another long trip in the Sierras. Next year (2019) we plan to return to the Sierras and intend to include a big section of your High Basin Route and end with a section of the Southern Sierra High Route past Mt Whitney to Cottonwood.
What I am asking is are there any updates for your guide since 2015, In particular, have you resolved which is the most scenic or best route from Basin Lake through to Woods Creek. Are there any other changes to other parts of the route.
Note we found the Sierra High Route to be a terrific walk and similar but a bit easier than our off-tracks in Australia. I wish we had your back country close to where we live!
Thank you for your reply
John Chapman, Melbourne, Australia
Go up the White Fork and pass through Ionian Basin to upper Goddard (rather than going down Enchanted Gorge). I know I need to update the Guide and straight out the resources, but it’ll be a more time-consuming project that you’d think because my guide-writing systems have changed quite a bit since then, and I’ll have to revise everything.
Hi Andrew, I bought your guide in summer 2018 for this. Have you since updated everything?
I wish, but no
Hi Andrew – What do you mean when you say “Go up the White Fork and pass through Ionian Basin to upper Goddard (rather than going down Enchanted Gorge)”. Is this two suggestions, go up the White Fork being the first and then the second being later on to pass through Ionian Basin to Upper Goddard and descend Goddard creek instead of doing the Enchanted Gorge?
Thanks! Can’t wait to use your resources for a 7 day hike I’m planning for this August.
Yes, two separate recommendations.
To connect Woods and South Fork, take White Fork.
To connect upper Middle Fork/Muir Pass and lower Middle Fork/Simpson Meadow, go through Ionian Basin to upper Goddard, bypassing Enchanted.
Enchanted Gorge hu?
Andrew, a friend and I are planning a late August KCHBR trek. I bought the guide and have been studying what look to be the most challenging sections: over King Col, Dumbbell Lakes to Paradise Creek, and of course the route down Enchanted Gorge. Regarding Enchanted Gorge, there looks to be a possible route that bypasses the narrowest canyon section roughly plotted here: https://www.gaiagps.com/map/?loc=14.8/-118.6641/37.0511&pubLink=XnJKbTaXQ7rj1eoAhcyZGrcg&trackId=7900f75c-39be-4d2c-b3d8-b85303b0ec51
Any thoughts on the viability or usefullness of this routing?
I’ve not been down Enchanted since 2014, and I don’t have my route notes handy. Based on the topos and the satellite imagery, that would appear to be a better route than staying in the creek bottom. It’s solid and mostly clean granite, whereas the creek bottom is a mess of debris.
Why would the climb into Palisades Basin be unjustified?
It’s a very big climb from the bottom of Palisades Creek. And it’s not a long section of off-trail travel before the topography kicks you back down into LeConte Canyon and the JMT/PCT.