(photos: King's Canyon, Straw flower)
In order to avoid the 90-degree midday weather, we met at six for a good buffet breakfast of filter coffee, fruit and pastries and then drove to the trailhead for King’s Canyon. Although we arrived at 7:15, several large buses had beaten us there and were disgorging school kids and tour groups. The main trail starts with a 500’ climb up stone steps to the canyon rim and continues around a horseshoe trail of 4 miles. We climbed up the steps, stopping to let high schoolers dash by. When we reached the top we encountered the students bunched together listening to a lecture; we passed them, they passed us, gathered for a lecture, etc…
The trail has beautiful overlooks showing smooth sheer red sandstone walls and mushroom shaped domes, but the constant jockeying for position on the trail made us walk much faster than we would have done otherwise and made it difficult to ID flowers and birds. Finally we came to the “Garden of Eden” at the head of the canyon where all the students stopped for their promised swim in a desert pool. We had a respite from the crowds and had a little time to enjoy the trail. We even got a life bird: the Fairy Martin. We returned to our car as the students caught up to us and drove down the highway a bit to Kathleen Springs, a lovely paved trail through flowers and Mulga trees to a small canyon pool. It was an amazing contrast to the chaos at Kings Canyon and we really enjoyed it. We returned back to our rooms, and Bob gave us the afternoon off! Hilary and I took advantage of the hotel’s laundry room, and the pool next door, and had a pleasant relaxing few hours. We met at five and took the trail that circles the hotel and found ourselves unexpectedly hiking up and down over rocky walls with few birds around. We retuned to the grill bar of last night and got a jug (pitcher) of VB beer and some grilled chicken. Sat outdoors next to a squabbling flock of beautiful pink and white Galah parrots and the guitarist of last night.
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