Trip Planning for group of 5 for 5 days

[Beverly]

Hi! We are arriving in San Francisco Friday August 29th. Saturday morning we will have a rental car and are driving to the Yosemite area. We would like to start our hike on Sunday. That is as far as I've gotten! I would love to find a 50 to 60 mile hike with reasonable shuttle possibilities (we will have one car) at a trailhead were we can get a permit in advance. I've looked through the previous posts but it seems like most of the recommendations are for routes that start at the most popular trailheads. If we can't find one that we can reserve in advance, we would like to be have options lined up for potential walk in permits. I think we might need a few different options since we are a group of 5 and don't want to split up. We are all mid 50's, moderately fit, and experienced backpackers (from Tennessee). Last year we did the Steven's to Snoqualmie Pass section of the PCT. Would love to find something similar in length/difficulty/and beauty! We prefer views/lakes over valleys/rivers. Thank you for your help!

[AlmostThere]

There's really too many options and it would depend upon what you're willing to do. If you want a loop back to the car, that limits you significantly. If you are willing to drive to the end of a route, drop the car, take public transportation back to the start, and do the hike that way - you can plan a trip toward the east, south or north, depending on how creative you want to get.

Sierra North (guidebook) and some study of a map would do you good.

It may boil down to the permits you can get and whether you are willing to do some cross country work to connect your route. If you're not good with maps and have to stick to trails, you'll want to plan from some of those popular trailheads.

[robow8]

Mono Meadow has openings for August 31. You could stay Saturday night in the Valley, catch the Glacier Point bus Sunday morning and start your hike and end it in the Valley. Or you could do a loop from MM. You could do MM to Illiouette Creek>Lower Ottoway Lake>Red Peak Pass>Washburn Lake>Merced Lake> Little Yosemite Valley> Yosemite Valley/MM.

[balzaccom]

Another option, if you are comfortable with a bit of cross country, is to get a permit for Nelson Lake out of Tuolumne Meadows. It's about six miles, and only two miles are truly cross country---the rest is either a clear trail to Elizabeth Lake, and then another two miles of a use trail over the ridge.

From NElson you can then hike out past Reymann Lake to Tuolumne Pass, Vogelsang...and then the park is your oyster. Head down to Merced Lake, up Merced Canyon, explore some of the lake off-trail there...and then loop back through Fletcher canyon and Rafferty Creek to Tuolumne Meadows.