High Sierra Topix

The family has decided to go to Hawaii this summer and skip our annual Eastern Sierra trip which we RV and day hike, fish, jeep out of June and Mammoth lakes. I need to get my Sierra fix this summer, so my daughter (18) and I are planning a 3 day backpacking trip early July. I'm planning on hiking out of Lake Sabrina.
Drive and Sleep 1st Night at Sabrina to acclimate
Day 1 Hike to Blue or Dingleberry and set up camp - fish relax
Day 2 Hike to Midnight or.. set up camp
Day 3 Day hike to.. then Return to Sabrina

We are both beginner backpackers, but have plenty of day hikes from our RV trips. I did a week trip when I was her age (many moons ago)..

Right now I'm asking if people recommend this location for us. Later I will try and nail down the itinerary and get recommendations on gear and packing.

Thanks,
DDMan92129

It's a great place for an entry level type of 3 day'r. Your itinerary is fine with distance options built-in. From Blue or Dingleberry, you can hit Midnight and Moonlight lakes on day hikes. It's a nice place for a weekender. I've been to Blue lk. 4 times in my life, at 14 years old, again in my 20's and took my whole family, including a 12 and 14 year old in 2009. Went twice in 2009. The second time I went to Midnight lk and camped out for 3 days. There is very limited camping at Midnight, but if you get inspired to haul up that far to camp, Moonlight has many camping options as well as your original plans. Sometimes, we don't get as far as we wanted, but sometimes we get there and find we can do more.

There are some nice spots at Blue lk. to camp. My two favorite are:
1) The far side of the lake in the forest area.

2) When you pass a large boulder outcropping just before hitting the outlet stream, facing that outcropping, to the left of it, there is a small use trail that leads to a small tree filled area with a wonderful campsite.

WAAAAYYYY back in the day when I didn't know anything about backpacking or taking photos I took a trip to Midnight Lake. Wait... that was only 5 years ago.

Here are some photos of that trip:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roguephoto ... 386623526/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I remember it being a beautiful place to go but I have not been back to Sabrina Since.

Thanks for the replies and beautiful photos. I think I'm set on the location and have plenty of time to plan the different camps/day-hikes. I think Blue Lake on Day 1 looks like a good idea. I've read about mosquitos at Dingleberry. We'll decide on day 2 whether to day hike or change camps to Midnight, Backpacker, Moonlight,....

Any recommendations on what gear to rent (I have none) and what gear I should buy.
Apologies in advance as I haven't searched for this info yet.

Thanks

Hi DDMan,

Welcome to HST! Use the search feature, you will find numerous trip reports into that
area that should be helpful and also some gear recommendations.

Not sure how things will shake down this year with the limited snow pack and all, but I generally find July to be the worst month for mosquitoes in the Sierra....maybe you know this already if July is when you tend to do your June Lakes trip? Anywho, just something to consider since those bugs can come darn close to ruining a trip.