Early May trip, 2 nights, close to major airport, SoCal?

You could fly into Ontario and head out to Joshua Tree NP. Lots of options out there. Weather should still be comfortable that time of year with the highs in the mid 80’s. Only downside to desert backpacking is that you have to carry your water.

If the road to Horseshoe Meadows is open (Inyo County usually targets the last weekend of April to have it open) then you could drive about 4 hours and head up there. It would be early enough in the season where you should be able to score a walk in permit. But you would have to make sure to book your flight to arrive early so you have time to make the drive to the ranger station to grab your permit before they close. A bunch of different options heading out of Horseshoe Meadows.

important questions :

1. are you making this trip just for the 2 day back packing ?
2. how many other days do you have available for site seeing ?

I’m biased but I say fly in to San Diego if you have extra days.

decent beginner back packing can be done at Mt San Jacinto out of the cute little town of Idyllwild. this small tourist town is 2.5 hrs from San Diego airport, and probably 2.5 or 3 hrs from LAX. the nice thing about this trip is there are nice rustic restaurants for after, and B&B’s if you want to stay an extra day. if you feel strong you could even hike to top of Mt San Jacinto, 10,800 ft (16 mi round trip from the trailhead). snow should be all or mostly gone by then. great views from the top.

as a second choice I also suggest Joshua Tree. depends on whether you want desert or mountains. Joshua Tree is a strange and beautiful place if you like desert. 3 hrs from San Diego airport, probably 3-4 hrs from LAX. note : you will have to bring all your water, even for the car camping part, as there is no water available.

Another option would be to fly into Sacramento(lots of flights with Southwest) and be in the Sierra’s within 2 hours, say like Desolation Wilderness.  If this is the first time backpacking for her, it’s easy to get to, beautiful, and plenty of water.

Snow and closed roads may be an issue for many Sierra locations in early May.

The Central Coast offers options ranging from easy and scenic to hard and scenic. You could fly to San Jose and drive about 2.5 hrs to the Vicente Flat trailhead off Hwy1. There’s a car campground (Kirk Creek) right there literally across the road from the TH and a campground at Limekiln SP a couple miles north. It’s about a 5 mile hike to Vicente Flat which is a large area among redwoods and a stream with many campsites. It’s uphill, but not too bad and the amazing views along the coast make up for it. The next day you could leave your gear and do a dayhike northwest along the Stone Ridge trail enjoying the views and turn around when ever. There’s a great spot for a picnic on a grassy ridge with a few oak trees for shade about 3mi from Vicente Flat. Hike back to the car the next day. These trails have been pretty well maintained lately. Not all the trails in the Ventana Wilderness are taken care of, though. No permits necessary except a CA Campfire Permit that you can get online or at the CalFire station in Morgan Hill on the drive down. The drive along Hwy1 is worth the flight out there alone. Big Sur and Monterey have cool touristy things to see and places to eat.

http://www.ventanawild.org/

http://bigsurtrailmap.net/

Big Basin SP near Santa Cruz is another, though less wild, option. You’ll need “backcountry” camping permits for that though.

Edited to add that the temps should be very comfortable. Lows in the 50s/40s Highs in the 70s

Thank you everyone for your recommendations! After consulting my wife, she seems most interested in seeing the Pacific Ocean for the first time, so we are going to Big Sur. As you said Kiel, the drive down Highway 1 seems worth the flight alone. I booked tickets to San Jose for a Thursday morning arrival and a Sunday night departure. Now I need to start preparing our gear. I’ll post a list soon and would love any feedback. Looks like we will need to watch out for poison oak and ticks.

Our plan is to backpack the Sierras either this August or next, so we will keep the Desolation Wilderness recommendation in mind.

William,

In the California coast range, if you are camping where humans often camp, you need to protect your food at night from raccoons usually by hanging it in a tree. They are not afraid and they will come in your shelter and also search your pack.

You could fly into Burbank or LAX and drive up to Sespe Wilderness near Ojai, CA. Ojai is about 1.5 hrs north of Los Angeles. You can read my trip report about backpacking out to Willett Hot Springs. It’s 10 miles from the trailhead with only about 1700′ of total elevation gain so it’d be pretty easy for your wife. Plus, there’s the pay off of hot springs. If you go during the week you have a very good chance to having it to yourself. You can also go 5 miles farther to Sespe Hot Springs and come back the following day. Another option is a 30 mile loop that includes the hot springs in the first half. There should be lots of wildflower in bloom. Ojai is a cute town and it’s also about 45 mins from Santa Barbara. I almost forgot  there is car camping at the trailhead.

Trip Report

Big Sur is incredible also but farther than you want. About 4 hrs from LAX and SFO (San Francisco).

If if you want mountains I think San Jacinto is a great option as mentioned. You can also spend time in Palm Springs too which is great this time of year because the weather is perfect.

William,

sorry, I realized you booked your trip. Big Sur is incredible! You and your wife will love it. They have some great hot springs too. Look up Sykes Hot Springs. I did a trip there n Nov 2014. Redwood camp along the Pine Ridge trail is gorgeous and usually empty. Have fun!

Hey Will, Big Sur can be an amazing place. I would recommend avoiding Sykes Hot Springs. It has become very well known in recent years and gets a huge amount of traffic. It gets all the traffic while other trails become overgrown due to underuse. On a nice weekend in May there is a strong change of not being able to find a place to camp around Sykes. The hot springs will be crowded. That area can get trashed too.

That time of year I would recommend the trail going from botchers gap campground that heads to the ventana double cone. The entire trail follows a ridge. You get amazing views of the little sure river drainage, the ocean, as well as the ridge connecting kandlbinder and the double cone. You could also hike from botchers gap campground past picco blanco boyscout camp and explore up the little sure river. Be ready to get your feet wet and I hear there are some nice swimming holes and waterfalls to see.

Anywhere you go it’s very important that you check the trail conditions page of the ventana wilderness alliance.

http://www.ventanawild.org/trails/trailconditions.html

It’s possible to get into a lot of trouble if you head up the wrong “trail” without checking, especially if you are planning a loop. Some trails on the map no longer exist.

Actually, if you drive down from San Jose and get caught behind the right tourist in the wrong RV, you could spend all two days driving the coast highway …grin.

And since my last comment wasn’t helpful at all–here’s one that is:

Check out Henry Coe State Park–45 minutes from the San Jose Airport, stunning backpacking in the spring.  It is a beautiful place with lots of room to roam and not many visitors…No snow.  What more could you want?  Even the fishing can be great.

So realizing this was from a year ago, I’ll throw in my 2 cents. I am a big fan of Emigrant Wilderness, on the north side of Yosemite and east of Sonora on Highway 108. 3 hours should get you there from Sacramento airport. Permits are walk in or call in a day or 2 in advance. Lower elevations should be snow free by mid June and July 4th is mosquito feeding season everywhere. August is wonderful although dry in a dry year. I hope you enjoyed your trip!