Hike TR - Backpacking the Rae Lakes Loop Sept 2024

As part of a fall road trip, I got a permit to backpack the Rae Lakes loop out of Road's End in King Canyon National Park. It's a 40 mile loop, and I booked the permit for six days so I could do some side trips off the main route. It's one of the most popular routes in the Sierra and there are 25 permits per day each direction. Permits are perpetually fully booked but as people cancel they come up as available online, and I snagged one that fit my schedule. Of course, when I showed up to pick up the permit it turns out that most people bailed on theirs but don't cancel ahead of time, so there were tons of walk up permits now available (this was just after Labor Day).


I camped on Sierra Natl Forest land just outside the park so that I could see the drive in to Road's End during daylight. It was pretty cool. Took an hour to get there.

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Lots of warnings about bears and such. And since I'd be parked for a while I spent some time moving everything into the hard shell canopy so it would be secure. Didn't get hiking until around 1030. The first two miles were flat as can be up the valley bottom until the trail crosses the South Fork Kings River. My permit was CCW, going up Bubbs Creek.

This meant I'd get a stiff climb up a bunch of switchbacks to start. This was the view.

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Looking north off one of the switchbacks is Paradise Valley. I'll be hiking down that in a few days.

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The switchbacks climb about 800ft in just over a mile. After that the grade mellows a bit but the trail continues to climb steadily.

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The trail alternates between loamy trail through the forest, steep switchbacks up and over rocky sections, and twisty turns though aspens and rock gardens. Views are always pretty good though

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Not really a rock garden, but a cool rock section regardless

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There were a few sections like this. These were my favorites.

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Really wished I was on my bike at times

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It was getting towards late afternoon and I was approaching Junction Meadow at mile 11, one of the main camping areas along Bubbs Creek. I'd passed a couple unoccupied campsites that were ok but not great, and then every site after that was taken.

One of my possible side trips was to climb up to East Lake, an extra 2 miles and 1,300ft. Feet were sore but East Lake reportedly has good fishing, so let's go!


View looking back across the valley a few hundred feet up the trail

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Cool section of creek flowing over open granite and then under this bridge

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Trail was steep enough to hurt. Reports of lots of deadfall were not true, a lot of it had been cleared. Maybe a dozen trees still down.

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Made it to the lake just before sunset. There were a couple guys at the primo campsite but they were cool with me taking a site right next to them.

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I headed right down to the lake to see if the fish were biting. They were. Interesting that some of the brown trout had only brown spots.

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Normally they have both brown and orange, like this one below. Not that it matters.

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Visited with the other 2 guys for a while. They had only hiked up from Junction Meadow today and were blown away that I had hiked all the way from Road's end. My day was 12.6mi and +4,500ft which seems pretty normal : )

Cowboy camped because temps were great at 9,500ft. Cooked dinner in the dark and then crashed out.

Day 2


It did not suck to wake up here.

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I headed back to the lake first thing but the brown trout were sleeping in, only the rainbows were awake.

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It was nice to have a bit of downhill before starting the climbing for the day

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Back on Bubbs Creek there were some nice waterfalls next to the trail

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Looking back, East Lake is up the valley to the left

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Back on my bike again in my head

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On the PCT now, looking south where it climbs up to Forester Pass

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I was heading north though. I passed the turnoff to Kearsarge Pass at Bullfrog Lake heading north on the PCT. This was now new PCT ground for me.

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That's Charlotte Lake below, climbing up towards Glen Pass.

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A storm had threatened on the climb up here, fortunately it seemed to pass and I got some sunshine late afternoon

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Final climb to Glen Pass

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View down over Rae Lakes from Glen Pass. Not bad! Rae Lakes #1 and #2 are in the shadow on the right

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I wasn't the only one enjoying the view

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The hike down was rocky and slow. My intro to Rae Lakes was someone camping in a meadow with speakers blasting shitty music you could hear 300ft away. Not cool.

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First and Second Rae Lakes. The trail runs over the rocky land bridge between them. There were a LOT of people camped there. And not using their inside voices. I could hear them "talking" from here.

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The trail heads onto the rocks to the left first, and there were people camped everywhere. Rather than follow the trail across the land bridge I started up the Sixty Lakes basin trail which basically heads north a short ways along the Second (further) Rae Lake before starting to climb. I soon found a cool spot to camp right above the lake just after sunset. Fortunately people shut up as soon as it got dark. I put the tent up since there was still threat of rain based on the clouds behind me.

Stats for the day - 10.6 miles, +3800ft

Beautiful photos, well composed, great colors. Was on the PCT in that area all those years ago and it’s really something. Was virtually empty of people at the time. 12.6 miles and 4,500 ft the first day out is impressive.

One of the reasons I like doing these trips in September - aside from better temps and no thunderstorms - is all the PCT hikers have gone through. I did run into some JMT hikers this trip but their numbers were very small comparatively. 406 and I did a trip in June 2022 and going against the flow we passed almost 50 PCT hikers in 7 miles.

Day 3


Enjoying breakfast at my lake side campsite. It was pretty quiet, the loud talkers from the evening before must have slept in.

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I stashed the bear can behind some rocks and left everything not needed for a day hike in the tent.

The plan was a day hike into the Sixty Lakes Basin to explore, do some fishing and find some good swimming.

There is a 700ft climb over a ridge to access the basin. Looking back at Rae Lakes from half way up the climb:

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From the ridge top you drop 300ft down the other side. And then you hit lake

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After lake

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After lake.

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Found the goldens. Most of the fish in this basin were about this size.

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The lakes got cooler the further down the basin you hike.

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The ones lower down almost looked like a meandering stream with multiple arms and oxbows, and numerous islands. There were foot paths out to many of these arms, which made it a bit hard to find your way past any particular lake. There was no defined main trail by this point.

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I finally made it to the furthest point I could get to, with a nice view up towards the Woods Creek drainage where the Rae Lakes loop continues next. The day hike to this point was about 4 miles.

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Heading back up. The trail climbed gently with just a few short steep sections as it wound around and between lakes. I had my choice of lakes to swim in, unfortunately the weather wasn't great with coolish temps and a steady breeze. Eventually found a sheltered spot with good water access and jumped in. It was cold, but felt great!

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I missed a turn and ended up following these guys to a cool lake higher up.

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Looking down at Rae Lake #1 on the drop down from Sixty Lakes basin. Aside from the guys above, I only saw a handful of other people the whole hike

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Got back to camp had a snack and packed up, then got back on trail.

There was a short stream flowing from the first Rae Lake to the second, with a rocky foot crossing. Then I followed the trail along the land bridge between them. Tons of people camping on this stretch.

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My plan had been to hike up and camp at Dragon Lake on the east side of Rae Lakes. But I missed the turn among all the side trails which head to campsites, and got down by the ranger's cabin before I realized it. So I kept going.

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Nice view of Fin Dome. The hike to Sixty Lakes had gone over it's left shoulder.

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I kept hiking and kept fishing at each lake and stream. Got a good mix of goldens, rainbows and brook trout. The color on this one was real pretty

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Awesome lighting and biting fish. This stream was all brookies.

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Getting towards sunset, time to find a campsite. I hadn't seen anyone camping for quite a while, since most people make a beeline to Rae Lakes.

There were a few camped on the far side of Dollar Lake here, but I found a good spot further down, made dinner, and crashed out. Stats for the day were about 11mi and 2k of gain.

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Day 4


Got a shock first thing. It was 7am and I was lying in my sleeping bag waiting for the sun to start warming things up. Laying on my left side.

As I rolled onto my back I caught a flash of black fur leap into the air and do a 180 before tearing off back towards the trail.

He had been walking right next to me on top the rock outcrop, so close he could have turned to one side and sat on me. I never heard him approach at all.


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Oh, hi

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Bye.

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He wandered around across the trail and partly up the hill, and then dropped back and wandered over to the shore. The rangers recommend chasing after them but there was another guy camped a couple hundred feet over and I didn't want to chase it right towards him. So I angled off once it got away from the shore and this was enough to push it up the hill and out of sight.


Baxter Lake was one of my possible side missions and the trail leaves right from camp. 2.5mi and 1,000ft up. I didn't feel like doing another out and back, and didn't want to leave my stuff at camp in case the bear came back again. So I continued on the loop instead. I'd thought about timing for the trip and decided that I was better off finishing in 5 days rather than 6 and using the extra day for some more bikepack scouting. My to-do list was pretty long.

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Love these trees!

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I only had 4 miles to Woods Creek, mostly downhill. The trail went from above tree line, to aspens and a field of avalanche debris, to being in the trees.

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Another pika, also enjoying the view

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The Woods Creek bridge. I thought I'd read that this bridge was out. Nope.

Since I skipped Baxter Lake I had decided on a different side mission, which was to check out the Woods Creek slide, and hike up to the Sawmill Pass Trail about 3.5mi and 1900ft up. I ditched the bear can and bulky items from my bag at a campsite and headed off.

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Bottom of the Woods Creek Waterslide, a polished granite slab several hundred feet long that the creek flows down. Didn't see anyone sliding down it, though it wasn't very warm yet. Not sure if people actually do that or if waterslide is just a name.

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Looking back down trail

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Cool fern section

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First and only marmot on the trip

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Reached the turnaround point. 406 and I did Taboose to Sawmill Pass a couple years back. I've been section hiking the PCT and have done it all from southern terminus to here. I didn't want to isolate a section and have to do a whole trip later just to hit it.

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The upper half of this section was a bit boring, trail was up on a slope above the creek and not great views or interesting forest. The lower half had lots of cool waterfalls and swimming / fishing holes. Threw a line into each one.

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Nice chunky rainbow

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This was my swimming hole

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Got back down to my gear stash with just over an hour until sunset. Rather than camp there I decided to get in a few extra miles.

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The trail had some pretty cool views higher up, then dropped in to Castle Domes Meadow.

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Cool fishing hole next to the trail

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Towards sunset I planned to take the first campsite that looked good. Of course, no more campsites appeared. So I kept hiking. One site a bit lower down was occupied. It was another 3/4 mile and pitch dark when I finally found one. Done!

Stats for day 4 - 16.5mi, +2,500ft/-4,800ft

Day 5


Nothing to do now but finish this thing!


I had camped in a nice section of forest so the trail was buff right from camp

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Not so many views among all the trees but occasionally the surrounding peaks would come into view

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I only had a couple more miles to Upper Paradise Valley, which is the main camping area along Woods Creek. The trail was really nice through here

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Ah, there's the bridge that is out. That's gotta make for an interesting crossing early in the season

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The trail follows pretty close to the creek below the campground and I spotted lots of cool waterfalls, swimming holes and fishing holes

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Then the trail climbed well up above the creek

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And wound through some cool rock areas

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Nice view here. You can tell where the trail turns right at the bottom of the valley, but that's still a ways off

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More rock. Anyone who spends time in Socal mountain ranges know that oak trees and granite mean gnats. They were savage. Almost everyone was wearing a bug head net to preserve sanity.

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This was the view for most of the descent

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Mist falls. Started seeing lots of day hikers here

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Went for a swim here.

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Rather than head back on the main trail I took the Kanawyers Loop Trail on the south side of the river.

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Similar views, but much less hiker traffic

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And another cool bridge at the other end.

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Got back to the trailhead. No one (or bear) had messed with the truck. Popped a beer, got my gear re-organized, and went for another swim. Then re-traced my drive from a few days before and grabbed the same campsite.

Stats for day 5 - 15mi, +950ft / - 3300ft

Total for the route including side trips - 70mi, +/-14,000ft


Thoughts on this loop:

I liked it. It's scenic. It's a good combo of length and toughness but not nearly as hard as some of the east side trails like Taboose/Sawmill/Baxter/Shepherds. I never saw that many people on trail although being September a lot of people bailed on their permits. The loop would be hopping during the summer. This would definitely make campsites along the trail harder to come by so you might want to opt for shorter days and snag a campsite earlier, especially at Rae Lakes. But you can also get away from the crowds by camping off the main loop. The fishing was fun, but fish in most of the lakes were on the small side. Biggest I caught might have been 11-12" but most were in the 7-8" range. Bring a bug head net. The gnats were savage below 7,500ft. This is a good route to do if you don't have a second vehicle available to shuttle between two trailheads. Permits can be tough to get during peak season though. They will be show as fully reserved after Labor Day too but you can get a walk up permit quite easily as lots of people don't show up.

Wow, really cool. I'd like to do the same. I did a 3 day hike in KCNP while in college and thought it was great. Good job.

Beautiful photos. That is a hell of a lot of hiking. Some of the shots look a lot like the winds.

You did some hella long days.

Great report.

Sent from my SM-S911U using Tapatalk

Thanks for the stellar TR!

That was awesome. Nice work!

Awesome pics and TR, thanks for taking the time!