Seeking California Hiking Ideas

My finance and I will be heading out to California at the beginning of June next summer for two weeks and we're trying to figure out where we want to hike. We don't plan on bringing all of our overnight gear, so it will have to be mostly dayhikes. We'll be between Sacramento and San Francisco and plan on heading to Yosemite National Park and Sequoia National Park. Obviously, it looks like Half Dome is a must do, but what else? Where to stay? Should we make our way up to the Tahoe area or not? Maybe someone knows a website similar to this one, but more geared towards that area? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Not knowing how prepared you are for potential snow conditions, its a little hard to answer.
In early June, if the CA mtns have a "normal" or heavy snowpack, Half Dome might be interesting as I believe its a 17 mile trip. If later in the summer, I would have suggested getting up to the Yosemite High country around Tioga Pass to climb Mt Dana, but I'm not sure if the roads/passes are clear by then.

I was out in yosemite from june 7th to 14th, i think it was. Half dome is the most scenic hike i have ever done. I have some pics of half dome if you click on my link. The mariposa grove of giant sequoias was a must see walk too. Check out this website http://www.yosemitefun.com/

why is half dome a must do?

there are plenty of day hike options in the high sierra that don't involve hundreds of tourists and lame restrictions (cables go down on HD in the afternoons, so unless you plan on actually climbing it, you're pretty much stuck)

clouds rest is right by half dome, has amazing views and since all the grannies go to HD, gets almost no traffic.
kearsarge pass trail is a beautiful 10 mile hike starting in onion valley, as is bishop pass which gets you right into the awesome pallisades.

mammoth lakes area has great day hikes like one to ediza lake, right at the base of the ritter range. views don't get much better than that!

there's also the mule route on whitney that can be done as a LONG day. probably not as enjoyable as doing it overnight.

My hubby and I went to Yosemite over the summer... granted it was the height of tourist season but Yosemite Valley was just plain nuts. I personally would avoid hiking any of the short hikes in that area. I'd also recommend staying at Tuolumne Meadows rather than in the Valley.

I'll echo some of the othe concerns about snow pack. Admittedly, they had a lot of snow this year, but our mid-July trip to Cloud's Rest was scuttled because there was still a ton of snow around. The lake that we hiked to on one of the days (at 9,000 ish feet) was still frozen just a week before we got there.

We really enjoyed the hikes from Tuolumne Meadows the most -- one through Lyell Canyon, which is along a river and has gorgeous views. It's pretty flat and easy going... eight miles round trip if you go all the way to the end of the canyon. I'd highly recommend this hike. We also did a hike up to Cathedral Lakes... it was mostly in the woods but the views from the lake were pretty. I still have pictures up on
shutterbook if you want to see what those hikes are like ahead of time. (Yosemite albums are at the bottom of the list.)

If you're driving that way, I'd also highly recommend making a stop at Bodie -- it's a gold-mining ghost town with many of the houses and old buildings still in a state of "arrested decay." Kind of like visiting Little House on the Prairie... it was something we walked away from saying that stop was really, really worth it.

- Ivy

if you bring crampons, you'll be just fine.
IMO it would be a shame to miss out on some of the finer hikes/climbs just because of some snow. go prepared.

Highly recommend the Tahoe Rim Trail -- more info available here

June should be before the peak tourist season starts in Tahoe. You'll definitely see some snow but you can't beat hiking along on the snow while it's 70 degrees and sunny.

Mt Tallac is a great day hike with beautiful views of Emerald Bay and Lake Tahoe. If you're into mountain biking try the Flume Trail.

Bob

I second Cloud's Rest and Toulumne Meadows. And if you have time pay a visit to Bodie's and Mono Lake (esp. at sunset). As for campgrounds, we stayed in this fantastic little place by Tioga Lake that had only 14 sites and was a first come, first serve right outside the park. It was a very pretty location (some pics and trip notes here in case you are interested).

geez.. I'll let the little bugger know

We stayed at Tuolomne Meadows campground in the park, which was nice, but crowded. Cloud's Rest is great, as are Dana, Hoffman, Tenaya (either the technical climb or bushwhack up the faint herd trail in the back). I've heard good things about almost all the other peaks out there. Bushwacking is also luxuriously easy, with open woods. We bushwhacked from camp out to Johnson Peak (short, easy trip). Climbed a beautiful slide, had a great hike. Don't forget to adjust your declination.

There's also an awful lot of good things to do down toward Bishop, including, of course, Whitney.

I Fall day-hiked Mount Ralston, SW of Tahoe and (I think) off the Pacific Crest Trail, with my (Adirondack, now 46er) buddy DNAgent.
MSL elevation about 6000-9000 ft, so more O2-demanding and dehydrating than in NYS. But excellent views of Tahoe and associated lakes. AND to a -lake (Aloha ?) to the west.

PLUS, Ralston summit (south of the trail) has a suspected Meteor Crater !

And (now, the sales pitch) if you drive up the southern route (50?) from Sacramento to South Tahoe, you can stop by the Jack Russell Brewery in Camino, founded by Terry Bonham, my brother-in-law
[deceased 5 years ].

Moon(shine)rock

Hike ideas

Try this site for some ideas-it's about NorCal and the Sierras
http://www.hiking-world.com/index.shtml