Help me figure what the ideal hiking season for these following areas are please

[Matthew Stenger]

Trying to plan my next year. Here is some of the areas I am interested in exploring , depending how it all plays out:

The North Cascades, specifically the Ptarmigan Traverse

The Sierra, specifically the SHR and Kings Canyon High Basin route.

The Wallowas (working on my own high route here)

The Winds (going to do a yo-yo traverse through the high country)

The San Juans in CO – I plan to re-hike the CDT there and loop back through the Creede route.

A continental divide traverse through Glacier NP

Those are the areas I want to get to. I may do the Wallowas this year still. Anyway I want to hopefully figure where I could go the earliest and where the latest, so as to give myself the longest season possible.

I am aware that weather is unpredictable, especially in the mountains, I just want to get an idea of when the snow typically melts/returns and maybe find out any other info such as in regards to rain seasons so I can come up with a plan of attack.

Thanks for any input.

[Brad Rogers]

For WRR, I like the last two weeks of August and the first week of September.  The bugs are usually gone, and it is before the major snows.

I like the same time period for the Sierras, but might even go into the second week of September.

I have found the last week of August near optimal in most US western high alpine locations.

[Todd T]

It depends on what you (don’t) like. For most of the PNW, the air will be clearer, the flowers brighter, the pictures better, and the bugs worse if you go mid to late July (some years early August). But you’ll want to be comfortable with some snow travel. If you wait till mid-August or September, the snow and bugs will be gone, the flowers tired or dead, and the air may be smoky. The Wallowas melt out a week or two ahead of the Cascades.

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