I backpacked to Young Lakes with a couple of friends over the July 4th weekend. We left late afternoon from the Dog Lake parking area (by Lembert Dome) Saturday, stopped at Dog Lake briefly, and continued on to our camp at the middle of the three Young Lakes.
We hiked up to the third Young Lake on Sunday morning, did some scrambling on the ridges above and then returned to our camp. We hiked out to Tuolumne Meadows via the Glen Aulin trail and caught the shuttle back to the Dog Lake parking area.
It's absolutely gorgeous in the high country right now, with a good balance of warm daytime temperatures and cool but not frigid temps at night. The smoke from the two forest fires currently burning was quite thick in the valley, but not noticeable once we'd ascended past 9200 feet. It significantly impacted the views from the trail, but not our hiking experience. The mosquitoes were quite brutal, however, and were persistent until noon at our campsite. I'd suggest either making camp late at night (as we did) and departing early in the morning or having a healthy supply of DEET and possibly head nets and permethrin soaked clothing. (Well, have plenty of DEET and long clothes regardless.)
Much of the snow has melted off by now and there were only patches around our campsite, though there still seem to be some snowfields hanging on on Northward facing slopes. I'm guessing the ascent to Mt. Conness is probably mostly snow-free by now.
On the return trip via the Glen Aulin trail we began to notice the smoke again as we descended toward Tuolumne Meadows. Our wildlife sightings included a small black bear in the Valley, a huge coyote near Tuolume meadows, numerous chipmunks and prairie dogs, and a marmot. It was a great trip and I'd do it again in a second, though it would have been nice to have an additional day to climb Mt. Conness.
Our hiking times were 4.5 hours and 3.5 hours back.