by Phil » Sun Jun 19, 2016 7:50 pm
I'll start at the end of your post.
White Wolf has a backpacker's camp. If you can find a site in the regular campground it does make it easier to setup gear from the car. August is busy though. The camp at Tuolumne is ~800 ft higher, but WW is much nicer.
With a car, play tourist and do the circuit. If you want to get out of the car and walk...all over the Tuolumne Meadows area, Elizabeth Lake, Pothole Dome, Lembert, maybe even up to Cathedral Lakes...almost endless possibilities...
Okay.
Day 1: Good plan. I prefer Babcock. It's more of what I would call intimate and Sierra-like. They're all nice, but it's the nicest, IMO. If you go over Tuolumne Pass and come up short, there are also a series of tarns along the trail that aren't too far past Boothe Lake (no camping allowed).
Day 2: Good, solid plan, and you should have a relatively short day to rest up for day 3.
Day 3: Red Devil is nice, but if you're tired and come up short, there's also a nice trailside tarn above it with some good sheltered sites. If possible, try to push up and over to Lower Ottoway and spend an extra day hiking the area or fishing.
Day 3/4: If you didn't make it to Lower Ottoway on day 3, take the time to. It's arguably one of the nicest and most picturesque lakes on your route, if not in the whole park.
Day 4/5: Clark Fork is perfect. Lot's of great sites.
Day 5/6: CR from Clark Fork might be a little overly ambitious in a day. It can be done, but better to camp along Sunrise Creek and climb up from there the next morning after you're rested and fresh. It's a long and arduous ascent. There might be an active spring on the way up, but consider it a dry route for practical purposes, so you'll need to haul all the water you'll need for the trail that day, camping that night, and through the next day until you hit the next water source at the creek a couple miles over the summit and towards the top of the Sunrise trail.
For planning purposes; your entry date is written in stone, but your exit date isn't, so you have plenty of flexibility in how you handle your itinerary once you're out there.