Backpack the Rae Lakes Loop

Aug 6

2023 Update: The road to trailheads is not open this summer due to severe winter storm damage. Woods Creek Bridge also damaged.

The Rae Lakes Loop in Kings Canyon National Park is one of the most popular backpacking loops in the Sierra Nevada. Its ease of access from the Bay Area and LA, the gradual start to the trail, and the stunning scenery - including a few miles on the John Muir Trail - make it a highly sought after adventure. And let me tell you, the views are worth it!

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Trail Info & Stats

Where: Kings Canyon National Park, Cedar Grove/ Road’s End

Miles: 40

Elevation Gain/ Loss: 7,500 ft

Time to complete: 3-5 days

Trail Type: Loop

Permits Required: YES

Pets Allowed: NO

Trailhead: Bubbs Creek/ Woods Creek

Itinerary & Trip Planning

The Rae Lakes Loop is a wonderful backpacking trip. It has a little bit of everything that is amazing about the Sierra: waterfalls, rushing creeks, big mountain peaks, Jefferey Pines, a cool suspension bridge, big grassy meadows, and alpine lakes. What’s not to love? While the loop is most commonly hiked in 4 days, it is not unheard of to push harder to make this a shorter trip, or extend your trip for another day or two. Taking a layover day at Rae Lakes to explore the nearby Sixty Lakes Basin is high on my bucket-list, and I met a couple groups who did that on their hike. No matter how long you take, you will have an amazing time.

Day One: Road’s End to Upper Paradise Valley via Woods Creek Trail. 9 miles, +2,750 -800 ft elevation.

Starting at the main Road’s End parking area, you’ll walk past the ranger station and onto the very wide, flat Kanawyers Trail. Follow this trail for about two very exposed miles until the junction to the Bubbs Creek Trail. If you are going to Mist Falls and Paradise Valley, you’ll stay left at the fork, and start climbing towards Mist Falls, paralleling the South Fork of the Kings River. There are lots of places along the trail to take a break and go down by the river to relax. Just be careful as it can be raging at times, even in a low snow year. The trail gradually ascends to Mist Falls, a beautiful waterfall with lots of space at the base to take a lunch break and enjoy the water. The trail gets steeper above the falls as you switchback up and up, partially on both exposed granite and shaded shrub. Eventually, the trail flattens out at Lower Paradise Valley, and you’ll continue on this flat path until Upper Paradise Valley, where there are many tent sites along the river.

Day Two: Upper Paradise Valley to Middle Rae Lake. 11.6 miles, +3,800 -200 ft elevation.

In the 2016/2017 winter, the footbridge across the South Fork of the Kings River was washed away, and hasn’t been replaced since. This currently requires a ford of the river from the upper paradise tent sites to continue your hike. We had no issues crossing the river, though it is pretty wide. In a larger snow year, this could be a problematic crossing, so make sure you are researching trail conditions before your trip and be prepared to turn around or find another route to cross safely. The trails climbs through shrubs and some patches of trees before opening up to a vast meadow under the Castle Domes. Even though the trail parallels Woods Creek for many miles, the creek is largely inaccessible, so make sure you fill up at the seasonal streams along the way. About 5 miles from Upper Paradise, the Woods Creek trail meets with the John Muir/ Pacific Crest Trail. You will get to turn south onto the JMT and cross the Woods Creek Suspension Bridge, which is a pretty cool feature of the hike. The creek is accessible on the southern side of the bridge, and the camping area has some good spots for lunch. From here, the trail steadily climbs for 4 miles through mostly open terrain up towards Dollar Lake. Be sure to stop and look behind you every so often, as the views of the mountains in the distance are gorgeous. From Dollar Lake to Rae Lakes, the trail continues to gradually climb with beautiful views of the meadows and creeks running off from the lakes. It is a stunning area, especially in the middle of summer with green grass and wildflowers in abundance. Middle Rae Lake is the most popular camping area with the most commanding views of the Painted Lady, but there are camping opportunities at Lower Rae Lake as well, for a quieter atmosphere.

Day Three: Middle Rae Lake to Junction Meadow. 8.6 miles, +1,800 -4,200 ft elevation.

Next up: climbing the rest of the way to Glen Pass. The good news is that most of the climbing was done on the way to Rae Lakes. The bad news? There’s still another 1,400 feet to climb and it is pretty steep. The views only get better the higher you climb, though! Remember to stop and look behind you frequently, as the hidden tarns tucked away behind granite ledges start showing themselves the further up you climb. Once you top out at Glen Pass, you’ll have great views of Rae Lakes down below and the surrounding mountains and unnamed tarns. From here, it’s quite literally all downhill. You make a short and steep descent down switchbacks to a tarn below the pass, and continue downhill to the Kearsarge Pass/ Charlotte Lake junction. Continuing south on the JMT, you’ll reach another set of switchbacks with views of East Vidette and other mountains while you descend to Vidette Meadow. Once at the bottom, you will leave the JMT/ PCT and head west on the Bubbs Creek Trail and follow the beautiful and powerful Bubbs Creek the rest of your trip. The final descent towards Junction Meadow has views of waterfalls on Bubbs and big mountains in the distance. Once you reach Junction Meadow, the campsite is about a quarter mile past the junction to East Lake, continuing down the Bubbs Creek Trail. This is a nice campsite with a bear box and access to the creek, but we found the Charlotte Creek sites ~2 miles further had nicer sites.

Day Four: Junction Meadow to Road’s End via Bubbs Creek Trail. 9.8 miles, +400 -3,500 ft elevation.

The downhill continues on, as the trail parallels Bubbs Creek for the remainder of the trip. Keep an eye out for bears on this trail, as most bear encounters happen here. This trail can be very exposed in the heat of day, but in the morning, there was lots of shade, and there are patches of trees as well. We saw multiple smaller campsites along the way mainly between Junction Meadow and Charlotte Creek, with Charlotte Creek having great sites. Sphinx Creek is the last (or first) campsite you can camp at between that point and the trailhead. After that, you descend down another set of switchbacks before crossing the many footbridges over Bubbs Creek. Some years, Bubbs can be overflowing its banks and this can be a very challenging rock-hopping and navigational nightmare, but for us, most branches of the creek were dry until the very last footbridge. Cross the last large bridge over the beautiful river before linking up with the Kanawyers Trail again. From this point, you’ll retrace your footsteps back to the trailhead.

Clockwise or Counterclockwise?

You really can’t go wrong with either direction. I went clockwise, and I would only recommend clockwise a little bit more because its a more gradual ascent, overall, and by the time you are doing the steepest climbing (Rae Lakes and Glen Pass), your pack is a little bit lighter. But views-wise, you’re in for a treat no matter what! You will be happy with whatever direction you manage to get with a permit.

Permits

The Rae Lakes Loop is the most popular trail in Kings Canyon National Park. Thousands of people attempt to get a permit every year, and only a fraction of people will be lucky enough to do the loop. Permits can be reserved in advance (6 months) on recreation.gov. Advance reservations cost $15 plus $5/person for each trip. In non-COVID-19 times, walk-up permits are available at the Road’s End Permit Station the day before and of the date you want to start your trip, and are free.

If you plan on using a stove or making a fire, be sure to obtain a free California Fire Permit.

Trailhead Entry/ Exit Options:

Clockwise

Enter: Woods Creek Exit: Bubbs Creek

Counterclockwise

Enter: Bubbs Creek Exit: Woods Creek

Trailhead & Lodging

The Rae Lakes Loop trailhead is at the Road’s End Permit Station. Just follow signs for Woods Creek & Bubbs Creek.

Because it is a bit of a drive to get to this trailhead, if you are arriving the day before your permit starts, you’re probably looking for somewhere to stay for the night before your trip begins. The closest drive-in campgrounds will be Sheep Creek, Sentinel, Canyon View, and Moraine. Campgrounds fill up quickly, and can be reserved on recreation.gov. There are also non-reservable, first-come, first-served USFS campgrounds on the way to Road’s End, and plenty of roadside pull-outs for van/ inside of your car “camping” on national forest land along Highway 180 near Crystal Cave. Some of these options have no facilities so you need to start your backpacking, cat hole digging, Leave No Trace Skills a little early.

Kearsarge Pass Entry?

It is possible to do the Rae Lakes Loop as a “lollipop” and use the Kearsarge Pass trail from Onion Valley off of Highway 395 as a starting point. Kearsarge Pass is another super popular trailhead, but the quotas are much different than the National Park. If you are interested in doing the loop this way, inquire about permits through Inyo National Forest at recreation.gov.

Trail Journal

Day One:

After a wonderful reunion with Hot Pants and meeting of new friends in the parking lot, we started the nice, flat walk on the Kanawyers Trail. The smell of the pine trees and dirt was re-invigorating, and it was fun catching up and chatting. Since we are doing the trail clockwise, we split off to the north on the Paradise Valley Trail towards Mist Falls. The trail gained steadily but not too quickly through the trees and shade following the South Fork of the King’s River. The River was super beautiful. Clear water that was tinged with blue and green. We couldn’t help ourselves and had to stop frequently for picture breaks and to dunk our hats in the water. Eventually we reached the base of Mist Falls and took our lunch break in the shade and a little bit of mist. Perfect for a super hot day. Mist Falls are gorgeous and we saw many day hikers at the large base and in the river.

After lunch, our climb got a little steeper and more exposed. We climbed through some of the largest fallen granite boulders I’ve ever seen, and I felt so small. The view behind us also opened up to see The Sphinx formation towering above the river. It was so grand. After a few more breaks in the shade, we officially reached Paradise Valley. This part of the trail was pretty flat and we walked through shaded woods and listened to the sounds of the river. After a water filtering break at the Middle Paradise Valley, we pushed on to Upper Paradise Valley, our campsite for the night. We arrived with plenty of daylight left and immediately found a great campsite for all of our tents with easy river access. I was able to get my small towel wet to scrub some dirt off of my legs, which was very refreshing. We also located the river crossing point since the bridge was broken a few years ago. It is right across from our camp, and will be easy - but cold - to do first thing in the morning. After setting up camp & relaxing, we made dinner and a fire at our little fire pit area, which thankfully kept the bugs at bay. After cleaning up and chatting more, we were invited to our neighbors fire, which was nice since ours went out pretty quickly after finishing dinner. We hung out with them for a bit before retiring to our tents.

Day Two:

Our longest & most elevation gain day started off a little slow. We finally got hiking when the sun hit the valley floor, but first had to cross the South Fork of the Kings River. The footbridge over the river washed out a few years ago and it is always a hot topic of conversation about this new ford. It was totally uneventful. We all crossed in our flip flops and then put on our dry socks & shoes on the other side. It’s nice to be able to start the day without super wet shoes and socks if possible.

The hike started with a gradual climb following Woods Creek. This climb was slow going for us. It was already very warm and we were trudging up a bit. Around a pretty wooded area, we heard a huge snap, and then looked up and saw a black bear and her cub up in a tree! The mamma was WAY up in the tree, almost to the very top, and her cub was about halfway up and looked so small in the tree. They were so cute! But we had to wait for them to get down and out of there. We were afraid to cross under because the cub was below mamma and she could get down to us super fast if she wanted to. Eventually they got down, and moved along, only for us to see them in another tree right next to the trail a few minutes later! This time just the cub was in the tree and mamma was at the base. We detoured further around in order to keep moving. They weren’t going anywhere.

After that delay, we took a water filter and snack break at a stream to recoup, and then we all set off for the rest of the climb to the Woods Creek Suspension Bridge at varied speeds. This part of the hike seemed to go on forever. Lots of PUDs (pointless ups and downs), unfortunately. The views were nice though, especially when we got to Castle Domes Meadow.

We finally got to the bridge, and found a nice shaded spot to eat lunch and chill for a bit, but not too long since we still had 6 miles and 2,000 ft to go to camp. After eating, we set off at our own paces again. I surprisingly had a decent amount of energy and was able to just keep trucking along. It was difficult in the heat, and I was getting pretty tired, but it was just one foot in front of the other for the climb. The terrain was nothing like I remembered from the PCT - I swore the descent to the woods creek bridge was way more forested two years ago, but I must have mixed up the passes/ descents, because this was pretty exposed. About halfway up the climb, the views of the mountains really started to open up behind us, and I had to stop a few times and take it all in.

Finally, we reached Dollar Lake, the first lake in the series of lakes on the way to Rae Lakes and Glen Pass. We stopped and took a longer break there to filter water, and me and Alicia talked to a PCT thru hiker named Kaleidoscope for quite some time. He was super nice and it was fun to hear about his late spring desert experience and how the trail is during the coronavirus time.

The rest of the hike had a decently gradual final ascent to Arrowhead and then Rae Lakes. The views of the mountains behind us, Fin Dome in front of us, and then the Painted Lady and Mount Rixford and Glen Pass beyond were just amazing. We walked past lower and settled into Middle Rae Lake for camping. We spent the night taking photos, meeting new trail friends, and watching the full moon rise, which casted amazing light onto the mountains. It was spectacular.

Day Three:

After our longer day yesterday, we took our time getting ready in the morning. I took some photos of the sunrise alpenglow on the mountains, but the color wasn’t super great. Should have gotten up a little earlier! After that, I cooked breakfast and finished getting ready. When the sun hit our campsite, we took photos with Rae Lakes and the Painted Lady, and then we finally got walking around 8:30.

The first bit walking between the upper and middle Rae Lakes was easy, enjoyable, and brought back memories of speeding through this area on the PCT. Then, we started climbing. We had about 1,400 ft of gain to the top of Glen Pass in about a mile. On the PCT, I remembered hating Glen Pass because it was so steep going down and I slipped a few times. This time, going up the north side of the pass without any snow, was much more enjoyable. It was still difficult and super steep in places, but it was easy to stop and take breaks because of how beautiful the views behind us were. We eventually topped out at Glen Pass, and it was very warm and pleasant to hang out there, unlike when we were on the PCT. We were there for about an hour eating snacks and taking pictures, and then started our descent down the pass.

We decided it would soon be lunch time, so we quickly filtered water at the lake below the pass and speed-hiked to the Kearsarge Pass junction. We found a little bit of shade and all plopped down. I ate my food and was feeling pretty tired and just wanted to lay down, so I did and took a little nap in the process. I only slept for a bit, but woke up in a daze. We packed our things up, and continued down the JMT. I saw the spot where Hot Mess, Butters, LOL, and I camped before hiking over Kearsarge the next morning and had all the PCT memories flood back to me. It was nice being with Hot Pants, at least, to share some PCT memories. We started going down the switchbacks to Vidette Meadow and had such great views of the valley and mountains! I didn’t really remember this on the PCT, but it just goes to show you: always stop and turn around to look behind you! You never know what views you’ll miss otherwise.

At the bottom, we turned away from the PCT/ JMT and went west on the Bubbs Creek Trail. We immediately began going downhill again, following the flow of Bubbs Creek. The views were really nice and I felt lucky to be there, despite how tired I was. While we were resting at a big waterfall, we ran into a father/ daughters trio who we met (and delivered a lost fishing license to) at Rae Lakes. They were all really sweet, and we were going to be at the same camp tonight too. We kept descending, and chatted with the dad part of the way down while the daughters were ahead of us. He was pretty amazed to hear about me and Hot Pants hiking the PCT and that I was coming back later in the summer to do the JMT with my mom! I told him to keep hiking with his girls, because it’s such a great time and a gift. They were all so nice.

We were pretty exhausted when we got to camp, and my feet were killing me! It was so much descent and they were not used to that. Once we got there, I immediately went to the bathroom and set up camp. We all meandered down to the creek, which was flowing really strong, and found rocks to sit and lay down on while we soaked our feet, cleaned our legs, and filtered water for dinner and the next day.

Dinner time was fun as we made a fire and sat around and talked about our trip. It was so relaxing and just felt so nice to be out in the wilderness. As usual, I was so tired by the end of the day, and once the sun went down, I was ready to sleep.

Day Four:

We all decided on an early wake-up for our final day since we all had to drive back home too! And had 10 miles to hike. I predicated we’d be at the cars by 12:00 pm when we started hiking at 7:00 am (spoiler alert: I was right). We quickly packed up and started our hike in the faded morning light. It was so peaceful and so nice to be amongst the ferns and trees. Daniela and I chatted most of the first half of the hike, whispering when we would pass a tent nearby.

We took our first water break at Charlotte Creek and were immediately jealous of this campsite. It was not marked on any map, and we would definitely have rather stayed there than at Junction Meadow. Much larger campsite with better water access and less horse poop. Oh well, next time! After the water stop, the trail seemed to fly by. The sun fully came out from behind the mountains as we made our way down to Sphinx Creek, where we took another longer break and chatted with a family about to go on a super cool sounding cross-country trip. I almost wanted to turn around and tag along! Once hiking, we passed the junction for the trail to Avalanche Pass, which is one of the starting point for the Big SEKI Loop, another hike on my list. The climb looks terrible, but also really beautiful. I’ll save that one for another summer.

Before we knew it, we were speeding down the last set of switchbacks and crossing over the footbridges of Bubbs Creek and all reconvened at the large bridge over the South Fork of the Kings. The water was so blue-green and see through, all I wanted to do was hop in. The water was sooo luscious! We still had a 2 mile mostly flat walk back to the trailhead, which seemed to take forever to finish. But we eventually did, and were greeted by the front country NPS officers who wanted to see our permit. Apparently there were lots of reports of illegal backpacking over the 4th of July weekend! :( Come on, people! Get your permits! They shared in our excitement though, and gave us recommendations to eat in Hume Lake. Unfortunately, I wanted to get home as early as possible for work the next day, so Panda Express on the way home was the option I went with! But overall, we had such a nice trip in such a beautiful place. Making new friends and finally getting to see an old one was so great and worked out really well on this trip.