Lakes Trail, Sequoia National Park, California

When to Go

As you can see, we took this trip in the dead of winter during a record high snow year for the Sierra Nevada. That said, this trail is most popular during the summer and fall. During peak season, it makes for a great beginner backpacking trip because the mileage is manageable and the majestic camping spots at Pear Lake are great for inspiring new backpackers. However, with all the positives comes one big negative – getting a backcountry permit can be very challenging during peak season. That’s where winter backpacking comes in.

We love this trail for beginner winter backpacking because the mileage is still fairly manageable for snow travel and the park puts yellow blazes (markers) on the trees to guide your way. The blazes aren’t 100% easy to follow, but at the very least, the blazes are a good way to confirm that you’re going the right direction.

This is also a nice place to start learning how to winter backpack because you have to option of sleeping in the cozy Pear Lake Ski Hut, rather than sleeping outside and having to upgrade a lot of your gear for the cold. The ski hut fills up fast though, so you’ll have to enter the lottery by November 5^th to get those coveted weekend dates.

The best (and only) way to check current trail conditions is to talk to a Sequoia park ranger at (559) 565-3341. I’ve noticed that some of the information you’ll get about snow depth isn’t entirely accurate though, because the rangers don’t regularly patrol in the winter. The best thing to do is monitor the weather about one to two weeks before your trip to gage how much fresh snow will be on the ground. And even if there’s not a lot of fresh snow in the weather, I would always recommend bringing snowshoes.

Trip Cost

Before You Go

In the winter, you don’t have to do anything before you go, but you still have to grab a backcountry permit when you get to the park. Sequoia National Park requires that all overnight travelers have a backcountry permit, but because the winter season typically falls outside of the quota period when the park limits how many people can backpack on a trail per day (May 25^th – September 22^nd), it’s very easy to get a permit. You just stroll up to the Giant Forest Museum off of the Generals Highway and self-register at the kiosk next to the museum. There’s also park rangers stationed inside the Giant Forest Museum that can answer any last minute questions.

Another big reason to stop at the Giant Forest Museum is to pick up a winter trails hiking map. The map was extremely useful for us because it showed all the winter trails and their designated blazes. There are a lot of winter trails in the area, so it’s very easy to accidentally follow a different trail and end up lost and confused (like we did!).

During the winter, I like to improve our chances of not getting lost by mapping out the route on the Strava app. The creators of Strava probably didn’t intend for people to use their app to map out backpacking routes, but it does a pretty good job of it. In the winter, when trails are harder to follow, I download the route onto my phone and use it as a last resort for finding our way back to the trail. Bonus pro-tip: download the route at home before you get lost; there’s no service in the backcountry.

One more app that ends up being incredibly helpful is the Hiking Project app by REI. I’m actually phasing out my Strava maps for Hiking Project maps because the REI app has more hiking trails and the routes are already programmed in for you. Additionally, they have more accurate elevation profiles and sometimes have information input by users about current conditions.

During the summer, the process of getting a backcountry permit is a bit more difficult. The trail is so popular that the park doesn’t allow wilderness permit reservations, like they do for the rest of the park. Permits are only available on a first-come-first-serve basis at the Lodgepole Visitor’s Center and you have to get there super early to get a permit.

Camping at Pear Lake.

View from inside the tent.

Getting There

The trail at the Wolverton Ski Area, on the north side of the park. The road to Wolverton is just south of the Lodgepole Visitor’s Center on Highway 198 (General’s Highway). There’s no convenience store at the Wolverton area so we stock up on last-minute food and supplies at the Lodgepole Visitor’s Center. Lodgepole also has payed public showers and ski/snowshoe rental.

One of the main reasons this is such a good winter trail is that the roads leading to the trailhead are almost always open – which is a luxury in the mountains. The only time the roads may be closed is while they’re plowing after a huge snow storm. The Sequoia National Park website has a really useful web page with the general status of all the roads in the park. As always, check road conditions before you go to avoid grumpiness and a mandatory adventure pivot.

Before you head to the trailhead at Wolverton, you’ll have to first stop at either the Giant Forest Museum in the winter or the Lodgepole Visitor’s Center in the summer to pick up your backcountry permit. The Giant Forest Museum is just south of the road to Wolverton but the road is windy and you’ll pass the crowded parking area for the famed General Sherman tree, so budget a little extra time to travel between these two points.

After picking up a permit, you can head to the Wolverton Ski Area and find the parking lot that’s closest to the trailhead. Don’t forget to display the car tag portion of the self-registered permit so that you don’t have any car issues. After all that, you’re ready to hike!

Snowy expanse on the way to Pear Lake.

The big, bad scary slope that took 45 minutes to cross.

On the Trail

The trail starts out in the woods with some pretty easy hiking – you may not even need snowshoes here, but don’t be fooled, you’ll probably need them later. There are a couple winter trails in the area so make sure you pay attention to the symbols on the blazes. The blaze for the Lakes Trail should be a yellow triangle but sometimes the blazes are faded and hard to read.

After about 1.5 miles you’ll encounter a hill so steep that you’ll have doubts that the trail is actually in that direction – it is. We actually got a bit lost here because we didn’t believe we had to go up the hill and ended up following a different trail for a while. After ascending the giant hill, the trail winds in and out of the tree line. There are a couple open clearings in this area where the tree blazes become hard to spot – a hiking partner with eagle eyes is very useful here.

After about 3 miles, you’ll be fully out of the tree line and the whole world will look like a big snow blanket. It’s a surreal experience being out there in such a hostile environment, but it’s also really quiet and peaceful because the snow muffles all sound. After some pretty majestic hiking you’ll get to the steep slope that I was talking about in the intro. Hopefully you brought snowshoes/crampons/microspikes because you’ll probably need them. We ended up bringing snowshoes and they did the trick, but the path we took was a little too narrow to fit both snowshoes so we had to precariously walk heel-to-toe the entire time. It took us about 45 minutes to cross the entire sloped area, which is about 0.3 miles long.

Safety Note: If you end up slipping down the slope, try your best to flip over onto your stomach and dig your elbows and knees into the snow to slow you down. The best example I’ve found on how to self-arrest when sliding down a snowy slope is this YouTube video.

After the slope-y crossing, you’re in the clear. It’s a relatively easy hike to Pear Lake and some very epic camping spots. One more thing – you won’t know exactly where the edge of the lake is because the snow piles up and makes the edge hard to find. We tried to camp in a spot where we were completely sure that the lake wasn’t underneath us to avoid waking up under water.

After the Hike

If you’re heading south out of the park, you’re in luck. There’s a modern diner in Three Rivers called ol’Buckaroo that serves all kinds of tasty treats. They’re located right by the river (great views from the back porch) and they have really good vegetarian options. I wish every park had an ol’Buckaroo on the way out.

Thinking about doing this trip? Have any questions? Comment down below!