Status of Wilderness Permits for Kings Canyon National Park

Questions and reports related to Sierra Nevada current and forecast conditions, as well as general precautions and safety information. Trail conditions, fire/smoke reports, mosquito reports, weather and snow conditions, stream crossing information, and more.
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SEKI Public Affairs
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Status of Wilderness Permits for Kings Canyon National Park

Post by SEKI Public Affairs »

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks is cancelling all wilderness permits that initiate in the Cedar Grove and Grant Grove areas due to trailheads being located in areas closed due to the Rough Fire. The parks are providing a refund of the permit fees. If requested, we will rearrange permits into other areas in the parks, or move them to a later date.

It is important to note that hiking in wilderness areas in the parks does not provide the best experience right now—uncomfortable hiking with much smoke and little to no vistas. However, whether or not you go, where a trailhead is open and available, is up to you.

Some wilderness rangers are currently being reassigned to other areas of the parks due to poor air quality. Rangers in the Cedar Grove area are also being moved out.

The park has limited staffing levels—and therefore very limited emergency response is available for the public. For example, with smoke, helicopters have not been able to fly into certain areas of the parks. In a worse-case scenario, an emergency could mean a litter-carry lasting several days per patient.

There are two teams managing different sections of the Rough Fire. For more information about the Rough Fire, call 559-565-3704 or visit http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4456.

In addition, there is a park-specific team managing how the Rough Fire affects employees and partners and communicating to the public how visitors could be impacted by the Rough Fire on a visit to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.
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maverick
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Re: Status of Wilderness Permits for Kings Canyon National P

Post by maverick »

Some wilderness rangers are currently being reassigned to other areas of the parks due to poor air quality.
The park has limited staffing levels—and therefore very limited emergency response is available for the public. For example, with smoke, helicopters have not been able to fly into certain areas of the parks. In a worse-case scenario, an emergency could mean a litter-carry lasting several days per patient.
Fellow HST Members,

Anyone considering going backpacking into SEKI should seriously consider these above points. Extended hiking in poor air quality, could be detrimental to ones health, and is is not worth risking possible long term health problems.

Not having SAR be able to respond quickly in case of an emergency, is also something everyone should seriously consider before going backpacking in SEKI at this time.

http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/ ... e_ash.html
Professional Sierra Landscape Photographer

I don't give out specific route information, my belief is that it takes away from the whole adventure spirit of a trip, if you need every inch planned out, you'll have to get that from someone else.

Have a safer backcountry experience by using the HST ReConn Form 2.0, named after Larry Conn, a HST member: http://reconn.org
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