Middle Fork Canyon

An earlier road to Giant Forest, completed in 1903, quickly proved inadequate for increasing motor car use. Completion of a new road with wider turns and less grade became a high priority, and a road survey of Middle Fork Canyon was ordered in 1918. Even by following a zone of softer metamorphic rock, construction remained an arduous task. In 1926, travelers were able to use the new highway from Ash Mountain to Giant Forest. Although Middle Fork Canyon of the Kaweah River appears open, it is nearly as deep as Arizona’s Grand Canyon, with the summit of Moro Rock 4,000 vertical feet above the canyon floor, and the canyon even deeper to the east. The region’s steep terrain had long made pioneer access extremely difficult, and only after construction of the Generals Highway from 1921 to 1926 did Giant Forest become easily accessible.

California · United States