5 Day backpacking trip out of Sacramento?

I think it depends on what you want.

The Hetch Hetchy area was part of the Rim Fire a years ago and is still recovering. It will be somewhat baren, no trees, LOTS of sunshines.  Some of the trail may even be inaccessible.

If you haven’t done Yosemite much the north and south rim trails are pretty great and somewhat short and isolated but you can also see much of the valley.  Most people don’t go up there as it’s a bit of a hike so you’ll have the place to yourself.

With that long of a trip you might have difficulty not getting into snow. Anything over a high pass might not be a good idea, if you’re not snow savvy.

That said, Rae Lakes might be your hot ticket. There were people heading up there in late April with snowshoes and spikes. Glen Pass will have a well trodden trail stomped up it. Poles and microspikes and a morning start and you shouldn’t have issues.

I hesitate to send anyone that I want to like me anywhere close to Yosemite… That’s Memorial Day weekend. True, starting on the 26th gives you an edge, you’ll have your pick of trailheads. BUT, it will be a madhouse and there will be holy f’n crowds all over every day hike out of the valley floor, so doing either of the rim trails is going to be the polar opposite of a wilderness experience. The backpackers will all be on the Buena Vista loop and over at Hetch Hetchy, sweating along with teetering packs and hoping that the creeks will be crossable.

Rae Lakes has an advantage in that Woods Creek and the Kings have bridges over them, and the other creek crossings should be manageable. Crossing at Junction Meadow to visit Lake Reflection might not be manageable but as desirable as that side trip can be, it’s probably not necessary. So that would be my vote for a Grand Sierra Experience.

I recommend the Emigrant Wilderness leaving from the Crabtree trailhead. I went there late may in 2013 and 2014 and had a great time. There was not much snow. However, those were low snow years. It’s at a lower elevation than a lot of other places but still beautiful with lots of granite.

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/91615/

This is incredibly helpful and so appreciated- keep sending recommendations.  Can’t wait to show these to my husband later today as we were overwhelmed by choosing something with only our one time fall experience hiking down there.

Please post more information on what kind of hiking you’d like to do.  15 mile days covering a lot of territory or shorter detestation type trips?  How many miles do you want to travel over the 5 days? The more information the better.

Estimating 12ish+ mile days, depending on how wonderful the scenery is (making us stop to enjoy) or depending on how much elevation up and down each day.  We can handle 3000+ feet a day just fine if not at 12,000.  We’re used to sea level here in Seattle. Thank you for asking.  The 5th day needs to be fairly short as we will need to return to Sacramento because of a 6 am flight the next morning for our daughter.

Right now Emigrant Wilderness is not projecting Crabtree trailhead to be open yet.  I agree that’s it’s nice, but it’s also all under snow right now…

Do you think sonora pass could open before crabtree?

Okay, we are homing in on Rae Lakes Loop.  Does anyone know someone who has already been up there recently?  We’d love to have more info on snow levels, etc.

Sonora Pass, the road itself, might be open before Crabtree trailhead, because they plow Sonora Pass, and they don’t plow the road to Crabtree….

Here is a model centered on roads end (the red line is the highway). Rae Lakes is a loop off the end of the road.

http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/interactive/html/map.html?ql=station&zoom=&loc=36.8486+N%2C+118.5900+W&var=ssm_depth&dy=2016&dm=5&dd=10&dh=6&snap=1&o5=1&o6=1&o9=1&o12=1&o13=1&lbl=m&o7=1&mode=pan&extents=us&min_x=-118.81666666667&min_y=36.641666666663&max_x=-118.35&max_y=36.899999999996&coord_x=+-118.5900&coord_y=+++36.8486&zbox_n=36.84862037036643&zbox_s=36.84862037036643&zbox_e=-118.59004166666838&zbox_w=-118.59004166666838&metric=0&bgvar=dem&shdvar=shading&width=800&height=450&nw=800&nh=450&h_o=0&font=0&js=1&uc=0

Looks like snow is solid from shortly after Woods Creek to where the trail drops into Vidette – a third of the loop is currently snowy. This should be melting out over the next couple of weeks to where the Glen Pass area will be the snowy part of the loop.