Rae Lakes Loop, Kings Canyon National Park

[defrag4]

glad you guys enjoyed it. ya the Kings river was treacherous looking, glad you didnt go down mist falls!

[pskhaat]

How many days duration did you take?

[defrag4]

5 days

[pskhaat]

How many total miles round trip? Would you be comfortable doing it in less time?

[nwoods]

AWESOME write up!

[suntinez]

What a great read, and excellent photos! Thanks

[Caduceus]

I know it wasn't asked, but we did it in 8 days with one day layover in Rae Lakes. It's about a 60 mile loop. 5 days is pretty quick, 6 or 7 would be nicer. Depending which way you go, the first day is a real PITA. The way they show, going past Mist Falls on Day 1, is the easier of the 2. If you go the other way, it's something like 130 switchback gaining 2000 feet in a few miles. Going on in that direction, it's a long push (8-10 miles, IIRC) to cross up and over the divide and into Rae Lakes. If you go the Mist-Falls-First way, from Rae lakes it's a 2 mile jaunt up a glacier over the divide, and nearly all downhill to that distant camp site.

As you can probably guess, it was a phenomenal trip. I don't remember a lot of details from most of my camping trips like this one.

[defrag4]

5 days was just right, You could certainly do it in 4 though. Hell some crazy trail runners complete the entire thing in 1 day, in good conditions of course

[hikingff77]

Awesome TR.

[spressomon]

Great post: Thanks!