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Backpacking California
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27 October 2020

Get Ready for a Lifetime of Awe-Inspiring Adventures
In California, backpackers can explore wild beaches, enjoy colorful canyonlands, hike amid stunning granite peaks, relax in wildflower meadows, and circle glacier-clad mountains. Discover 71 of California’s best and most diverse backpacking trips with the expert backpackers and experienced authors of Wilderness Press. Backpacking California details the premier opportunities across the entire state. This fully updated edition describes scenic escapes ranging from one night to two weeks, or 3 to 68 miles. Choose from carefully crafted trips in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Big Sur, Desolation Wilderness, Mount Shasta, Point Reyes National Seashore, the San Bernardino and San Gabriel mountains, Trinity Alps, Yosemite National Park, and more. Each carefully crafted itinerary offers geographic diversity, beautiful landscapes, and attainable daily mileage goals.
This in-depth guide provides all the information backpackers need, including trail highlights, mileage, elevation gain, days on the trail, shuttle distances, required permits, and more—not to mention full-color photographs and detailed trail maps. Plus, ratings for scenery, solitude, and difficulty help you to find the exact adventure you seek. Whether you’re a novice backpacker or a veteran hiker, with this many options you may have trouble deciding where to go first!
Western California
- THE PENINSULAR RANGES
- Laguna Mountains
- East Mesa Trail
- Pine Creek Wilderness
- Secret Canyon
- San Mateo Canyon Wilderness
- San Mateo Canyon
- The San Jacinto Mountains
- San Jacinto Loop
- The Santa Rosa Mountains
- Art Smith Trail
- SANTA CATALINA ISLAND
- Trans-Catalina Trail
- THE TRANSVERSE RANGES
- The San Bernardino Mountains
- San Gorgonio Mountain
- San Bernardino Mountain Traverse
- Holcomb Crossing Trail Camp Loop
- The San Gabriel Mountains
- Big Santa Anita Loop
- East Fork San Gabriel River
- Silver Moccasin Trail
- High Desert National Recreation Trail
- The Santa Monica Mountains
- Point Mugu State Park Loop
- THE COAST RANGES
- Big Sur
- Trail Camp
- Pine Valley
- 16 Cone Peak Trail
- Diablo Range
- Poverty Flat and Los Cruzeros Loop
- Redfern Pond Loop
- The Ohlone Wilderness Trail
- Santa Cruz Mountains
- Pescadero Creek Loop
- Skyline to Big Basin
- Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail
- Point Reyes National Seashore
- Coast Trail
- Bear Valley Loop
- Lost Coast
- Lost Coast Trail: Orchard Camp to Usal Camp
- Lost Coast Trail: King Range Wilderness Loop
- KLAMATH MOUNTAINS
- Trinity Alps
- Canyon Creek Lakes and L Lake
- North Fork Trinity River to Grizzly Lake
- Deadfall Lakes, Mount Eddy, and the Sacramento Headwaters
- Marble Mountains
- Marble Rim via Sky High Lakes Basin
- Shackleford to Campbell, Cliff, Summit, Little Elk, Deep, and Wrights Lakes Loop
Eastern California
- DESERT
- Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
- Butler and Coyote Canyon Loop
- Rockhouse Valley Loop
- Mountain Palm Springs Loop
- Death Valley National Park
- Marble Canyon to Cottonwood Canyon Loop
- Surprise Canyon
- Ubehebe Country Loop
- Sand Dune Fields in Mojave National Preserve
- White Mountains
- Cottonwood Basin Loop
- SOUTHERN SIERRA NEVADA
- Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and John Muir and Golden Trout Wildernesses
- Mineral King and Little Five Lakes Loop
- Crescent Meadow to Whitney Portal via the High Sierra Trail
- Lodgepole Campground to Deadman Canyon Loop
- Rae Lakes Loop
- Cottonwood Lakes to Upper Rock Creek Loop
- Horseshoe Meadow to Whitney Portal
- South Lake to North Lake
- North Lake to Humphreys Basin Loop
- North Fork Big Pine Creek Loop
- Kings-Kern Divide
- Middle Fork of Bishop Creek
- Virginia Lake
- Ansel Adams Wilderness
- Agnew Meadows to Devils Postpile
- Lillian Lake Loop
- NORTHERN SIERRA NEVADA
- Yosemite National Park
- Happy Isles to Half Dome
- Happy Isles to Merced Lake
- Glen Aulin and Waterwheel Falls
- High Sierra Camps Loop, Northwest Part
- High Sierra Camps Loop, Southeast Part
- Tuolumne Meadows to Emeric Lake
- Yosemite National Park and Hoover Wilderness
- Virginia Lakes Basin to Green Creek
- Kerrick Canyon and Matterhorn Canyon Loop via Barney and Peeler Lakes
- Carson-Iceberg Wilderness
- County Line Trail to Sword and Lost Lakes
- Pacific Grade Summit to Bull Run Lake
- Desolation Wilderness
- Glen Alpine to Half Moon Lake
- Velma, Fontanillis, and Dicks Lakes
- Meeks Bay to Emerald Bay
- Tahoe Rim Trail
- Tahoe Rim Trail: Showers Lake
- Tahoe Rim Trail: Star Lake and Freel Peak
- Plumas-Eureka State Park
- Little Jamison Canyon to Grass, Rock, Jamison, and Wades Lakes
- Bucks Lake Wilderness
- Bucks Lake Wilderness Loop
- CASCADE RANGE
- Lassen Volcanic National Park
- Summit Lake to Cluster, Twin, Rainbow, Snag, Horseshoe, and Swan Lakes Loop
- Caribou Wilderness
- Central Caribou Lakes Loop
- Mount Shasta
- Treeline Circumnavigation of Mount Shasta
- WARNER MOUNTAINS
- The Summit Trail: Pepperdine Trailhead to Patterson Lake