West Sierra Weekend?

Great area…and you can always find a place to be alone, even with the numbers of people there. You might also look at a lower loop: Grouse Lake then Resasco Lake, Pingree, Big Lake, Yellowhammer, and back up to Leighton and Woods Lake…then back down the canyon. Guaranteed to see fewer people. Once the level in Cherry Creek is low enough to make the first crossing, it's a piece of cake. And this year, that creek is going to be lower.

WE have trip logs on all of these hikes on our website: backpackthesierra.com

I really love your site, Paul. Been visiting it for a fix for over a year now.

Taking your advice and looking at your trip log, I put this into Hillmap, we should get to the trailhead around 7pm if traffic is bad.

http://www.hillmap.com/m/ag1zfmhpbGxtYXAtaGRychULEghTYXZlZE1hcBiAgIDAoNGYCAw

Night 1: Crabtree to Grouse Lake (partially via headlamps).
Day 2: Up to Rosasco, then x-country to somewhere between Pingree and Leighton Lakes. —-Any amazing spots between these two?
Day 3: Down to Wood Lake, then back west following the valley back to Crabtree.

My possible bail option if things don't go as planned (impossible, right?) would be to take a shorter loop north after Rosasco and before Pingtree.

Thanks for the kind words for our website.

Crabtree to Grouse Lake is only about 3.5 miles…but beware—there are few good campsites at Grouse Lake! The best is on the southern granite, and is best accessed via a use trail to your right when you first arrive at the lake.

The rest of the lake is covered in lily pads, so it's tough to get water there…

The hike up to Resasco is a very tough climb…but it is short. And once up at the lake, the terrain gets a lot easier. We LOVED the granite in Cherry Canyon between Pingree and Big Lake…and there is another small lake east of Pingree that would also have some decent campsites. This whole area is easy cross-country—just open granite slabs.

There are NO FISH in Leighton or Karl's lake..but there are in Pingree and Big Lake…