Cedar Grove is an unincorporated community

Unincorporated area

In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

 and the location of the visitor center in
Kings Canyon National Park

Kings Canyon National Park

Kings Canyon National Park is a National Park in the southern Sierra Nevada, east of Fresno, California. The park was established in 1940 and covers...

. Situated near the South Fork of the Kings River, in Fresno County

Fresno County, California

Fresno County is a county located in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California, south of Stockton and north of Bakersfield. As of the 2010 census, it is the tenth most populous county in California with a population of 930,450, and the sixth largest in size with an area of . The county...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, Cedar Grove is the only commercially developed area in the park. Facilities include the Cedar Grove Visitor Center, the Cedar Grove Lodge, a market and four campgrounds. The road into the canyon closes mid-November to mid-April.

Although John Muir

John Muir

John Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions...

 referred to the area as "Deer Park" in 1891, the name Cedar Grove was in use by 1902. A small hotel was built without a permit in 1897 and was forced to close the next year. The name Cedar Grove Hotel appeared on the Tehipite 30' topographic map

Topographic map

A topographic map is a type of map characterized by large-scale detail and quantitative representation of relief, usually using contour lines in modern mapping, but historically using a variety of methods. Traditional definitions require a topographic map to show both natural and man-made features...

 from 1905 to 1924. Incense-cedar

Calocedrus decurrens

Calocedrus decurrens is a species of conifer native to western North America, with the bulk of the range in the United States, from central western Oregon through most of California and the extreme west of Nevada, and also a short distance into northwest Mexico in northern Baja California...

are abundant in canyon.