Mineral King Climbing

This digital Mineral King climbing guidebook gives you GPS navigation, verified topos, and beta for hundreds of climbs. Explore classics and hidden gems with offline access to maps, directions, and beta videos. Whether it's your first visit or fiftieth, KAYA makes your Mineral King days smoother, safer, and more dialed.

Mineral King is a subalpine glacial valley located in the southern part of Sequoia National Park. It is open seasonally from May through October, and is accessed by a long and narrow winding road. It is mostly and traditionally popular with backpackers and hikers, but the bouldering potential is just starting to be tapped. Most of the quality boulders are around lakes where the boulders are "pre cleaned" but there are some harder to find forested boulders as well. The rock is mostly granite but with a few exceptions. While there are a few stellar roadside lines, the boul... Show more

This digital Mineral King climbing guidebook gives you GPS navigation, verified topos, and beta for hundreds of climbs. Explore classics and hidden gems with offline access to maps, directions, and beta videos. Whether it's your first visit or fiftieth, KAYA makes your Mineral King days smoother, safer, and more dialed. Mineral King is a subalpine glacial valley located in the southern part of Sequoia National Park. It is open seasonally from May through October, and is accessed by a long and narrow winding road. It is mostly and traditionally popular with backpackers and hikers, but the bouldering potential is just starting to be tapped. Most of the quality boulders are around lakes where the boulders are "pre cleaned" but there are some harder to find forested boulders as well. The rock is mostly granite but with a few exceptions. While there are a few stellar roadside lines, the bouldering here is not for the faint of heart, and a normal approach is 3+ miles, with some exceeding 8 miles. As such, take extreme caution when bouldering in the back country since all inherent dangers of rock climbing are amplified by the remoteness. Come here with a humble heart open to adventure, beautiful views and introspections. As an interesting fact, Disney once planned to make the Mineral King Valley a Ski Resort, but after long legal battles the valley was annexed to Sequoia National Park and the Ski Resort Project was abandoned. How different this area would have been. Silver City Mountain Resort is the one amenity in the Park. It is a seasonal resort offering cabins and a restaurant, which is a real treat after a long day on the trail. The restaurant also has low speed wifi which is the only place to get any sort of data. The camping in the park is Atwell Mill Campground and Cold Springs Campground. There is no BLM within reason and there are literally no places for unreserved "car camping" so be sure to secure somewhere to stay before making the long windy drive. Silver City Resort does have cabins if you wanted to splurge for a plush weekend. They are often fully booked but are often worth it for a group or a luxurious weekend. Since most of the best bouldering is around the lakes, it is worth getting a wilderness permit from the rangers and crash pad backpacking to a lake (I recommend Franklin or Mineral). Also please note that since Mineral King does not have the same traffic as other climbing destination its useful to bring a wire brush. Mineral King Valley closes to public vehicles for the season beginning Oct 29 at noon (gate at the park boundary). It typically reopens the Wednesday before Memorial Day - unless there are delays due to winter road damage or construction. Head east on the 198 freeway which can be accessed via the 5, the 99 or the 65. Once on the 198, continue east past Lake Kaweah and into the small town of Three Rivers. The 198 turns into "Sierra Drive" when getting to Lake Kaweah. Follow Sierra drive for ~14 miles then look for a turn on the right for "Mineral King Rd". This is a long winding 24.5 mile one lane road so make sure your passengers take Dramamine if they get car sick. Most of the road is paved but there are dirt sections, but the dirt parts are usually well maintained so almost any car should be able to handle the road NOTE: There is current construction on Mineral King Road and it may impact your trip. Please check https://www.nps.gov/seki/planyourvisit/road-construction.htm for the latest. Construction is expecteded until 2027