Help! We had planned to do a 5 day backpacking trip in the Desolation Wilderness area near Lake Tahoe the 2nd week of July. But I've been told that it likely won't be possible due to the massive amount of snow they got this winter. We are all flying into Reno, doing our backpacking trip, then have a condo reserved on Lake Tahoe. So we need to stay in the Reno/Tahoe-ish area. We need to come up with a plan B, but don't know the area. Any ideas on where to start looking that is within a 2 hour drive or less of Tahoe, that doesn't have tons of snow?!?! Thanks for your help. We have less than 2 weeks to come up with a new plan.

Henry Coe State Park might be a bit far, it's near San Jose, but it would work. And you might even get in some bass fishing.

I did some camping last summer in Eldorado NF and thought it was lovely. It was hastily thrown together as we were trying to escape fires near Crater Lake. They have many access points at many different elevations. I would call up the ranger station and see what they recommend for your desired trip. We were near Silver Lake. If that is snowed in, there was lots of stuff at lower elevation to the west of there.

It's hot and snow is melting fast. Contact Eldorado NF for current trail conditions-I'll wager you can get into Desolation, perhaps from Wright's Lake.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/eldorado/

Have not been up there yet this season but by July many trails will be open regardless of how big the snow season was.

Good luck!

See the trip report, "Stanislaus Below the Snow," by balzaccom, posted yesterday in this section.

Yep. You could easily spend 4-5 days in that Herring Creek area. Lots of roads to follow, plus some trailheads as well. We came very close to hiking into Waterhouse Lake, and from there you could get into the canyon of the Stanislaus River above Pinecrest Lake. For that you would need a wilderness permit, and we didn't need, or get one, for our trip.