Hi, My friend and I were planning a snow shoe/backpacking trip to San Jacinto, but due to Covid it is closed to overnight camping. Everywhere else I am looking at, such as the Sequoias, doesn't allow fires. Any suggestions for open trails or wilderness areas that will have snow in December/January and allows fires? I'm looking to hopefully stay within a 5 hour drive of Los Angeles.

By January most of the fire restrictions in the Sierra will have eased...although building a fire in the snow with scavenged wood is harder than you might think. The only legal wood to burned us downed wood, and that's under feet of snow, and sopping wet.

It was a bad fire year and fire restrictions are going to be the toughest part of your plan within 5 hours of LA. I don't know of anywhere that has snow that is allowing fires. It is possible the restrictions could ease up in December/January. One area I thought of was off of the Angeles Crest Highway up by Mt. Waterman but it looks like it was decimated by the Bobcat Fire . I really loved that area.