Mineral King Road

Road update from Sequoia Roads Supervisor:

The current plan is for the Sequoia Road Crew to return to maintenance on the Mineral King road as soon as the current road center and fog line striping project is completed through the Giant Forest area this week.
Mineral King road maintenance will consist of spot brushing priority areas, pothole patching, drainage maintenance, shoulder damage repairs and regrading of the washout above Cold Springs and spot grading of the remaining unpaved sections of roadway, not necessarily in that order. Tentatively starting date of 7/15.

Today’s post isn’t very fun, but it is informative if you or someone you know is planning a trip to Mineral King this summer.

I’ve been driving the Mineral King Road regularly for 35 summers, sometimes weekly. This year it is the worst I have ever experienced.

There is no attempt to smooth it, no pothole patching, no erosion control, and no brushing. None.

Several times I wondered if I should stop, get out of my car, and eyeball the route on foot to find the safest way through the obstacle course. Instead, I crawled along in first gear, sometimes riding the brake to go even slower, and I made it without breaking anything.

My non-objective view is that since Trail Guy (AKA Retired Road Guy) retired 7 years ago, there has been a cumulative effect of his not working on the road. The Park roads department is headed up from an office in Grant Grove, which is in Kings Canyon National Park rather than from Ash Mountain in Sequoia. When Road Guy was there, he made certain that the Mineral King Road was not neglected. As a retiree, he still volunteers many hours on a (borrowed) big yellow machine to clear away the winter snow to get the road opened sooner than if folks waited for the Park or for nature.

The Park’s view might be that the road will be redone in a few years. Do they think that it won’t deteriorate further until that time??

I counted 60 potholes in the paved sections on the four-mile stretch between Silver City and Mineral King.

It would be easy to prune these cottonwoods that obstruct vision on this little stretch.
When potholes are full of water, it is impossible to judge the depth.
Just a random sampling of the potholes on the final stretch of road.

2019 was a real winter, which delayed the opening of the Mineral King road, campgrounds, and our own cabin. Atwell Mill Campground is open, but Cold Springs won’t be opened until July 10. (Most of the passes are snow-covered, but people are backpacking and day hiking anyway.)

Drive carefully. If you find the road to be a problem, it might not hurt to write a letter to the acting superintendent, whose name I do not know. (Woody is away, working at the Grand Canyon this summer.)

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8 Comments

  1. Thank you for putting this problem out to public and park attention, Jana. Unless people begin to speak out, critical safety hazards can be too easily be brushed over–until a few lawsuits bring attention.

    • Thank you Louise. Maybe some of the people in fancy cars from the cities heading to Silver City will make enough noise!

  2. You’re right, Jana; the road is practically impassable! I took my son up there last week and thought I had broken an axle! Like you, I had to drive in 1st gear with the brake applied and even then couldn’t miss all those deep chuck-holes and run-off ditches down the middle of the road. Evidently the NPS doesn’t care about fixing it; I noticed that Cold springs is closed as well. Although we had a great lunch at Silver City, the road conditions really impacted our trip.

    • Thank you Sophie. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who got spooked by the road.

  3. So right on it is terrible ther worst I have ever seen, I’m going to try to send this on. Thanks

    • Sue, thank you for commenting and for passing it along!

  4. Back in the Dark Ages when almost all of the road from Hwy. 198 to Beulah was dirt (!) I remember my G’Pa driving about 10 mph and trying (unsuccessfully) to maneuver around the potholes and washboards in the road. It was a real shock/strut tester! But it would be a shame for the NPS to push maintenance “down the road” (see what I did there?) just because there may (or may not be) a re-do.

    From 3R News:
    “During Woody Smeck’s reassignment, Christy Brigham, chief of resource management since 2015, served as acting superintendent of Sequoia-Kings Canyon.”
    Ash Mountain address:
    47050 Generals Hwy.
    Three Rivers, CA 93271

    • Sharon, thank you for the old timers’ perspective and thank you for the info about the current superintendent.

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