Place: CA-Kings River

Kings River (quad)
(Long, Lat)

Description:
We found, after having traveled five leagues, the Rio de los Santos Reyes, which had been discovered in the previous year, 1805. (P. Muñoz: Diario de la expedición hecha por Don Gabriel Moraga á los Nuevos Descubrimientos del Tular, Sept. 21 to Nov. 2, 1806, in Bancroft Collection, Arch. Sta. Barb., Vol. IV, p. 27.)” (Richman: California Under Spain and Mexico, 1911, p. 465. —See, also, Chapman: History of California, 1921, pp. 419-420.)
Rio de los Santos Reyes signifies in Spanish “River of the Holy Kings,” and refers to the Magi, or three kings, called in the Bible the “wise men from the east,” who visited the infant Jesus (Matthew: 2:1-12). It is not unlikely that the name was given on the day of Epiphany as was the case in the naming of Point Reyes (Punta de los Reyes) on the California coast by Vizcaino in 1603.
“We crossed an open plain still in a southeasterly direction, reaching in about twenty miles the Tulare Lake River. This is the Lake Fork; one of the largest and handsomest streams in the valley, being about one hundred yards broad and having perhaps a larger body of fertile lands than any one of the others. It is called by the Mexicans the Rio de los Reyes. [December 22, 1845]” (Fremont: Memoirs, 1887, p. 448.)
There are three principal forks of Kings River: North, Middle, and South.

[Tehipite]

The main cañon of South Fork of Kings River, often compared to Yosemite Valley. (For analysis of comparison and general geological description, see, F. E. Matthes, in S.C.B., 1926, XII:3, pp. 224-236.) Early history obscure. Probably seen by Captain John J. Kuykendall’s company of the Mariposa Battalion, 1881. (Bunnell: Discovery of the Yosemite, 1880, pp. 137-141.) Undoubtedly visited by early prospectors. Explored by Brewer party of Whitney Survey, 1864. (Whitney Survey: Geology, 1865, pp. 369, 391-392.) Account of a visit in 1868, by E. C. Winchell, in San Francisco Morning Call, September 11 and 12, 1872. (Reprinted in S.C.B., 1926, XII:3, pp. 237-249.)
John Muir visited it in 1873, 1875, and 1877; again, in 1891, and later. (Badè: Life and Letters of John Muir, 1923-1924, I, p. 392; II, pp. 89, 253— Muir: A Rival of the Yosemite, in Century Magazine, November, 1891.)
Joseph Le Conte visited the cañon in 1901. (Joseph Le Conte, in Sunset, October, 1900; reprinted in S.C.B., 1902; IV:2, pp. 88-99.)
First Sierra Club Outing to Kings River Cañon, 1902. (S.C.B., 1903, 1-3, pp. 185-192.—Hugh Gibson, in Out West, November, 1902.)

From Place Names of the High Sierra (1926) by Francis P. Farquhar

Trips:

• February 8, 2020 - Gary and Sherri hiking along the Kings River

Pictures:

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References:

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