High Sierra Topix

Late June is going to buggy this year, so I am having trouble finding a recommendation that I would be excited about myself.

With that said, I think that the area near Lake Edison would be worth considering for you. You could do a 4 night loop where you went over silver pass and then back down over goodale pass. I'm planning on doing a 6 day trip in that area in July. It seems like the best west side entry into a dog friendly area.

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions..

Wandering Daisy - I've been to Bridgeport before but never into the mountains west of there. Thank you, I also found your trip report from a while ago there and think this would be an ideal trip for us.

schmalz: Thanks that loop looks great for my kind of trip on a time budget, I like it!

seanr: I live in Santa Cruz. I have driven it to Mammoth in the morning on a weekend in time to get a walk-up permit before, and its doable but approaching the upper threshold for me, at least without more days off of work. I see what you mean, studying google it looks like for Big Pine its pretty similar north or south.

But now the verdict... after giving it a lot of thought, taking a look at some pics and reports of how the snow is melting, etc. I think for our enjoyment I should put it off til past the mosquito peak. I can handle them but my wife gets them a lot worse than me, and I keep flashing back to a June trip a couple years back that had to be aborted (though we still found other fun things to do together). I want a happy wife Still, I will keep these suggestions as in my current line of work its difficult to do longer trips. If we do nothing else I have a weeks' vacation in September that could allow for a longer, late-season trip without any of the bug worry. We'll see.

Yeah, coming from there (brother is there BTW), don't torture yourself with that dull drive down the San Joaquin Valley to Bakersfield. Coming from the Garlic capital, I save that stretch of road for visiting family or going to Death Valley/Mojave Preserve in winter. I spent a handful of years in SLO area, so I thought I'd make sure you were up here verging on Bay Area like me. We do have lots to do around here, but getting to the Eastside with enough time to really enjoy it is tough to do without close to a week of vacation available. September is a great time to go; shorter days, cooler nights, and less snow to view, but no mosquitos, less crowds, lower chance of thunderstorms, and routes generally as unobstructed as can be. Green Creek and Bridgeport area is definitely worth checking out. I go there at least once a year, usually taking Sonora Pass to get there and/or back, sometimes looping with Tioga. On the Westside, especially if you haven't been, those areas some of us mentioned south of YNP and north of SEKI are worth checking out when you only have 3-4 days to work with. With dog, Emigrant and Carson are relatively close and scenic as well. Good call on the mosquitos in early summer; now you've got lots of time to pick a route.