Moro Rock Trail

NOTE: The road up to the trailhead is seasonally closed. This road generally opens by the Wednesday before Memorial Day in late May and closes when it becomes impassable due to snow. In heavy snow years, the road may open later than usual. In summer when the free park shuttles are running (usually from late May to early September), the road closes to private vehicles on weekends and holidays from morning through late afternoon. You can park at Giant Forest Museum or any other shuttle stop and ride the free park shuttle along the road. No drinking water is available along this road, so be sure to take some with you. Moro Rock Trail in Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park scales a granite dome via a steep 1/4-mile staircase to the summit offering a spectacular view of the Great Western Divide and the western half of the park. The parking area for Moro Rock is 2 miles from the village. A steep 1/4 mile staircase climbs over 300' to the summit of a granite dome, offering spectacular views of the western half of Sequoia National Park and the Great Western Divide. This chain of mountains runs north/south through the center of Sequoia National Park, "dividing" the watersheds of the Kaweah River to the west and the Kern River to the east. Moro Rock is a dome-shaped granite monolith. Common in the Sierra Nevada, these domes form by exfoliation - casting off in scales, plates, or sheets of rock layers on otherwise unjointed granite. Outward expansion of the granite causes the exfoliation. Expansion results from load relief: when the overburden that once capped the granite has eroded away, the source of compression is removed, and the granite slowly expands. Fractures that form during exfoliation tend to cut corners. This ultimately results in rounded, dome-like forms.