We were a bit tired from a bit of a longer day the day before and didn’t have too far to go today, so we slept in a bit this morning. After carefully packing up our crippled tent and eating breakfast we headed down the trail for South Paradise Valley.

Dad spotted this bear in the forest near South Paradise Valley. The valley was impressively lush, especially compared to the higher elevations where we had been the last few days.

We passed the camping area at South Paradise Valley, complete with a pit toilet, a resource some of the other camps along this loop could probably use. There was a trail crew out fixing up the trail in the valley where it went through a particularly dense area of brush.

The Sphinx from far above. As we dropped down to Mist Falls we went through a few exposed areas that were brutally hot. We were quite excited to reach Mist Falls where there was a small area for swimming and took a few dips to cool off before having lunch.

There were lots of day hikers out here and we passed more and more as we headed down. Mercifully, the trail entered the forest for most of the rest of the hike and the temperatures were a bit more manageable. Soon we were back at the junction near the bridge and headed back on the trail along the river to our car. We grabbed some clean clothes and went over to swim in the refreshingly cool Kings River before changing and getting in the car to head back to Fresno.

We stopped at the overlook of the confluence of the Middle and South Forks of the Kings River to check out this incredible thunderstorm. It seemed the weather had delivered on its forecast. We continued on for Fresno and then home to the Bay Area for me, another great several days in the wilderness in the books.

In all, I thought the Rae Lakes Loop was a great trip. While it spends much of its time traversing canyons at lower elevations, the few miles on each side of Glen Pass are an impressive visit to the high country. It’s quite easy to see why this loop is so popular, it’s a very approachable 4-5 day backpacking trip for most and offers a fine variety of scenery over the course of the trip. That popularity does have some drawbacks though, you’re not likely to find much solitude and some of the campsites (Upper Paradise Valley, Woods Creek crossing, and Middle Rae Lake) are very heavily impacted with Charmin Blooms and dozens of parties on a busy night. Those who are seeking more solitude or a more direct route to the high country would be better served looking elsewhere. But if that doesn’t bother you then I’d definitely recommend it.