Mineral King is a subalpine

Subalpine

The subalpine zone is the biotic zone immediately below tree line around the world. Species that occur in this zone depend on the location of the zone on the Earth, for example, Snow Gum in Australia, or Subalpine Larch, Mountain Hemlock and Subalpine Fir in western North America.Trees in the...

 glacial valley located in the southern part of Sequoia National Park

Sequoia National Park

Sequoia National Park is a national park in the southern Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California, in the United States. It was established on September 25, 1890. The park spans . Encompassing a vertical relief of nearly , the park contains among its natural resources the highest point in the...

, in the U.S. state of California. The valley lies at the headwaters of the East Fork of the Kaweah River

Kaweah River

The Kaweah River in the U.S. state of California flows westward from the foothills of the Sierra Nevada into the Central Valley. It rises in forks in the southern Sierra Nevada inside Sequoia National Park, the longest of which is the Middle Fork, about long...

, which rises at the eastern part of the valley and flows northwest. Accessed by a long and narrow winding road, the valley is mostly popular with backpackers and hikers.

Historically, the valley was inhabited by the Yokut tribe, then in the 1870s, silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

 was discovered on the slopes of a mountain overlooking Mineral King.