Pete and I floated the lower Kings on Saturday. Parked at the Glenn Hwy Bridge and hiked up the trail on the NW side of Kings River for 5-6 miles. Put in just after where the trail crosses the river and dead-ends (?) at steep slope. Could have crossed, or taken Permanente Road to get in higher, but put in at that point. Flowrate was decent and made for a fun, quick float. Lots of splashy wave trains almost all the way down. Mostly Class II+. Lots of wood to avoid and 3 river-wide strainers that we had to portage around. About a 2 hour hike and 2 hour float.
Paul, if you go up Permanante Rd. about 3-4 miles, go down a long hill, take trail on left that goes directly to river, then take trail to right. About 1/2 mile there is a rock about 2ft across in the trail. Go to the river, find the crack in the canyon wall and put in under Gotta Give er, the last big drop on the lower canyon, you will know when you see it. This is faster than walking up river and you get a mile or so of canyon and the better water of the lower, lower, section. This also serves as a takeout for Magic Mile or lower canyon run if times a factor. Even at good flows it is only class III in a couple of spots, but is continuous and funnish.
Cool, thanks Mark. Good directions. Think a couple of us will try to hit that soon.
Bob, Pete, other Bob, and I followed Mark’s directions and did this hike/float on Saturday. The canyon is really cool and the fall colors were beautiful. A bit chilly, but not too bad. Water was lower than a couple weeks ago, but still some good wave trains and splashy fun. Hike and float took about 5 hours total (parked at the start of Permanente Road at the Glenn).
A group of us went in and did the whole lower canyon last week, at about 300cfs or so. The canyon is free of wood, some rapids changed alittle, Gotta Give er has changed too. The central boulder at the lip of the drop has moved against the left wall, but the line is still right of center to run the drop, it was pretty beefy, don’t go left for sure. Take out right after the hole which is about 100-150 ft below the big drop, in the canyon crack on the left side, to avoid the wood ridden lower section, or just take out before the drop and walk to the trail fork. Super fun run with some decent water, worth the 10 mile hike to the huge gravel gulley putin, which got some major water last year, very gnarly flood devestation, goes all the way to the river now.