My friend and I are hiking the lost coast trail next weekend and have the luxury of being able to be out there 3 nights. We are trying to plan the best route and also understand the tide charts. If we get up at 4:30 am to hike at 5am both Saturday and Sunday, does this seem do-able & safe? Any other tips with route planning as Saturday is significantly longer than the other days? Thank you ahead of time!
My wife and I have a backpacking trip planned for next month (mid June). We are planning on staying at sky camp night 1 and coast camp night 2.
I've read that the trails are pretty overgrown. Any recent insight? Any suggestions on the cleanest trails, without sacrificing scenery?
How is coast camp? Worth staying the night? I was also considering staying at sky both nights, and doing a day hike to coast.
Any thoughts or opinions on a 2 night trip considering these 2 sites would be helpful.
Is this possible as through hike along the coast? On Alltrails the trail dies at some point. Please advise!
Did just a few days there at Sky camp. Just be warned — taking Sky trail past Sky camp gets progressively more overgrown to the point of almost fully so. Saw a hiker turn back. It was ridiculous. Ended up trudging through to the coast still.
Kelham beach isn’t accessible to my dismay. You could technically go down but the steep dirt path back up would be super difficult. Risk being trapped. Apparently you cant hike directly down to Sculptured beach for the same reason but I didn’t check it out.
Took Woodward Valley and Fire Lane trails as well and also heavily overgrown.
Endured stinging nettle, scapes by blackberry and occasional poison oak but didn’t see a single tick.
FYI if anyone’s going. I don’t know the reason why (last year was bad too) but they should just close these trails officially if they can’t maintain them.
Been coming here for twenty years — don’t know what’s happened.
Once we’re in quota season for Desolation, just want to check - it seems like the quota doesn’t apply to day hikers but that you do need a permit. The reason I’m asking is bc if I want to do one of the more popular day hikes (eg to Lake Aloha), I just want to know if I need to plan on having a backup as a day hiker, or if I’ll be okay as long as I get the in person permit.
Can you get your day hike permit online or are the online permits only meant to be used for overnight? (It does seem to give me the option for day use)
I've been working on my photography skills by visiting places around my area that are drivable so I can learn what a good photo is and is not.
Feeling solid about this photo, the morning was cold, but well worth it.
What would you change in the edit?
Hi there! We’re planning to visit Camp Mather for the first time with our two kids—a 4.5-year-old and a 1.5-year-old. I’ve checked the website’s list of essentials, but I’d love to hear any additional tips or recommendations from parents who’ve been there before. Any advice or suggestions that might be particularly helpful for first-time visitors would be greatly appreciated.
Hi! My husband and I are planning a trip to southern Oregon and Northern California at the end of June/beginning of July and are looking for hiking recommendations. We plan to go to the Samuel Boardman Corridor and the Redwood National/State park but would be interested in other trails in the area. We would be willing to drive a bit for any good alpine lake hikes that would be open that time of year. We’ve spent time hiking in other parts of Oregon and California but not this particular area and would appreciate any recommendations you may have! Thanks in advance!
Looking to do Mt Eddy via Deadfall Lakes this Saturday, 5/23. What is the snow cover looking like on the trail? I checked AllTrails, USDA Snow Depth Map and Alert California cameras, just not seeing consistent information.
Cause without them this shit would be impassible. Thank you for going into the wilderness to cut trees and clear brush so I can still make it to a distant lake. Yall are the real MVPs.
Hello all, looking for hiking and camping options in CA for me and my girlfriend. I would say I'm an okay hiker, we plan to go the 30th. Thanks in advance!
My wife and I have been coming to Point Reyes regularly for the last decade. On our most recent trip which just ended we were noticing ticks on us after basically every outing. In the past we can remember only seeing 1 or 2 total in all the years coming here. Has something changed recently in others experience?
I was coming to visit home from OC in Sacramento and was thinking of hitting up Ebbett’s Pass. I went last Memorial Day weekend and it was beautiful, but pretty snowed in, so I don’t think Highland Lakes was open. I’m assuming it’s open now given the much lower snowpack, but I was wondering if anyone has visited recently. I’ve seen some really cool pictures of it looking really green and lush with residual snow patches kinda resembling Glacier NP or RMNP. Sonora Pass had that look when I went last Mid-June. I went to Tahoe early May and the meadows are already green there (6200 ft). So I was wondering if anyone has gone to Highland Lakes in the past week and had pictures so I can see if it has that green lush look to it.
I'm looking for ideas on good places to go hiking/backpacking in the area, spending a night camping and hiking back, any good ideas? Ideally a moderate trail (like 5 miles max) with somewhere to setup for the night.
Hey I’m 32M visiting SF, I’m a doctor and CEO of a health related company, I’m into movies, music and traveling.
looking for friends to explore, eat, walk, and maybe have one of those random unforgettable nights!
I started backpacking again after a long break and have noticed there are a lot more people backpacking than before. So many people around these small landlocked lakes, and frankly a lot of them are pooping really close to them. All of that waste seeps downhill when the snow melts. Please tell me I’m wrong. I don’t like wag bags any more than the next person but I wonder if they will become required in the near future.
Photo: Glacier Lake in 5 Lakes Basin, August 2025.
A lovely cool breeze was coming over the hill. Lots of hawks and vultures.
Just went for a day hike today and the trail did not disappoint! Weather was great and trail conditions were perfect.
Anyone been up in Desolation in the past week and have current conditions to share? AllTrails from about 2 weeks ago seemed to suggest the trail to lake aloha was still so snow covered as to need snow shoes, but high res satellite on Gaia and their mapped snow level estimate seems to suggest the snow is pretty minimal to non existent on the trail from echo.
ETA: since it seems we concur these images aren’t up to date, if there are any Gaia users out there that wouldn’t mind taking a look at this area in their app, in particular the recent sat image that shows more snow than this but way less than others are seeing, to see if we can figure out what Gaia is doing here? I’m new to using it and obvi don’t want to rely on it if it’s going to have this amount of variance between the app and actual conditions.