Recommended weekend backpacking locations in Western US?

You cast a wide net with that question. So many options.

That’s fair, Ken.

let me narrow it to alpine lakes and meadows in the high Sierra.

Any options come to mind? And not sure how permits work in CA, but I imagine there’s much greater demand than supply…

Enchantment Lakes in Alpine Lakes is probably the best known, very nice, hard to get permit.

Maybe I am just lucky, but I have never had a problem getting a permit into Ansel Adams Wilderness.

This weekend I did a quick trip. The core of the loop was https://www.hikingproject.com/trail/7084524/lillian-lake-loop taking every spur to a lake: Rutherford,  Flat, Monument, Rainbow, Shirley, Chittenden, Staford, Lady, Vandeburg, and then a longer spur to Norris, and Jackas.  Didn’t get to Breeze, Chain Lakes because Yosemite was still closed.

Traffic was light… I didn’t see anyone on the trail, saw at most 2 tents at any of the lakes.

My feet only got wet a few places… mostly dry ground with stream crossing via rocks / logs.  The huge log that let you cross (Timber Creek? on Frenendez Trail) was washed away in the storms this winter so that involve some knee depth wading which was surprising warm over comfortably round rocks.

Most of the snow is gone… chatted with someone who said 2 weeks ago there was a lot more snow and that  at the rate the snow was clearing it will be gone from the trails in another 2 weeks.  Mosquitoes are still light.  Fish really biting in Lillian Lake… understand the catch and released something like 30 fish in the afternoon with several keepers that were dinner.

I’ve always really liked Lassen NP in far northern CA.  Sightseeing, volcanic features, caving, and lots of backpacking options.  It isn’t Yosemite or Yellowstone with hoards of people.

We have a TON of such trips in the destinations part of our website;  backpackthesierra.com.   Just off the top of my head, you might look at; Desolation Wilderness, Emigrant Wilderness, Dinkey Lakes, Jennie Lakes, Hoover Wilderness (actually, the whole East side of the Sierra has good locations for this…)

And more

Believe me, enchantments are high on my list. Have hiked but not backpacked there.

Wow, Paul! This is fantastic. I’ll dive into the content on your site.

Are permits hard to obtain for the locations you mentioned?

Thanks

Washington has some really excellent opportunities. Enchantments are amazing, so is Glacier Peak. Weather is really iffy. The Wallowas in Oregon have more stable weather.

Hi Nicholas

This year?  Very complicated answer.  Here’s what we know so far:

Confused? We are!
If you’ve tried to contact a national forest office lately about getting a wilderness permit for this summer, you’ve found that things are pretty darn confusing. First of all, all of the offices are closed to public traffic due to the COVID19 pandemic. Fair enough.

But the websites and information coming from these offices is also quite confusing. Some offices and some national forests are issuing wilderness permits, either via an on-line system like recreation.gov or via telephone, fax or email processes. And the same is true for our national parks.

Others are not issuing permits at all, but only opening hiking trails for day hikes.

Some forests are asking you to recreate locally (a suggested response to COVID19) and not drive to visit their region at all.

And as far as we can tell, while no USFS campgrounds are open, dispersed camping is allowed in many of the forests, but not all of them. It looks like Lassen National Park has opened its campgrounds, but it may be the only one. And some USFS forest offices are closed completely–not answering the phone, not offering to return any left messages.

We’d love to give you some advice as to how to proceed, but it also appears that the situation and the responses to it from the various National Forests are constantly changing. All we can suggest is that you call each office individually (numbers are available from the USFS websites) and ask what would work for them, and find out what would work for you.

If you feel that backpacking is a safe activity both for you and for those with whom you might come in contact, you can find regions where that is possible.

Just think of the search as part of the adventure.

That said, it looks like Caribou Wilderness is open and doesn’t require permits.  Lots of the non-wilderness areas of national forests are open to dispersed camping…and many of the roads are closed, so you could easily put together a trip there.

And some areas have self-issuing permits, like parts of Hoover Wilderness–but that’s under the Toyabe-humboldt NF–and they are one of the offices that isn’t answering phone or emails…Gotta love it.