Middle Fork Trail to Panther Creek

A really lovely, rewarding trail that winds around a ridge far above the Kaweah River. To get to Panther Creek/​Falls the trail is mostly uphill. The hills aren’t very steep and it shouldn’t be an issue unless you’ve got about 50lbs of gear on your back, like myself. I definitely needed to take breaks often as this trail did not offer much shade and it must have been around 75 °F outside.
The trail is narrow and shared with horses so you’ll have to dodge horse poop from time to time. Lots of lovely flowers and amazing views of the river. Watch out for snakes and poison oak (there is a TON of poison oak… make sure you know what it looks like before going!)
There are 3 – 4 streams to cross, mostly just rock hopping. The water is pretty shallow if you just want to walk through. Gorgeous waterfalls and lots of lizards!
Once you arrive at Panther Creek, you’ll hear the turbulent waters of the river below and will be offered spectacular scenery. There is a campsite right at the end of the trail if you plan on staying overnight, otherwise this is the turnaround point for this hike. If you continue on uphill past the campsite, you’ll find the continuation of the trail that will take you to the lovely Redwood Meadow.

I actually am not sure if I should do this, because more people will find out how awesome it is, and will start going there. I just got back from a backpacking trip in Sequoia. Our original trip was canceled by closed road to the trail, so we randomly picked one that was available.
All along the trail is gorgeous, and very soothing with the sound of massively flowing river. Pretty wild flowers and cute marmots, if you are fortunate, may be some black bears? you need to cross few creeks, which is not that hard at all. Beautiful massive granites everywhere, and tasty water. I really enjoyed this trip. Oh, plus very cute camping spot as well.
Only thing that bothered me was campers before us left some trash at the site, so we had to bring it out. Please take your own trash out and don’t be such shitheads. Bad karma will follow you til you pay for your deed. I am feeling pretty awesome now after this trip :-)
–moderate, short hike, no hardcore up or downhills.