Taking my not outdoorsy wife on her first backpacking trip. Memorial weekend, 3 nights. Would love something not too far of a drive (Maybe 4-5 hours from LA max) without too many people since it's a busy weekend. High country would be nice with some water to swim in! Moderate difficulty.
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Bear canyon campground, Angeles national forest. It's a decent hike with lots of water crossings, and plenty of water holes to swim in.
Sespe trail near Ojai. There's a hot spring in 10 miles and another one in 15 or 16 miles from the trailhead. Not too strenuous. You can make a very strenuous loop by hiking up to Pine Mountain Lodge (there is no lodge) where there are trees, then over the ridge to Fishbowls where you can take a cold plunge (and there are more trees), then hike along Piru Creek on a dirt road in the trees, down Johnston Ridge Trail to Sespe Hot Springs (there are big horn sheep), then out via the Sespe Trail where you can visit the other hot spring. Or you can skip all the hot springs and drive Lockwood Valley road directly to a trailhead to Fishbowls making for a short and mostly flat hike of fewer than 10 miles one way. Find more info on Hike Los Padres website.
High country lakes are still frozen solid. There’s no swimming anywhere above maybe 5k in elevation. Our lakes at 8k are still completely snow covered. And anything thats thawed is gonna be absolutely freezing. You’ll need to eliminate swimming if you want to go anywhere in the Sierras. Maybe something around Big Bear but that’s still probably going to be freezing. There’s snow melting into the lakes right now, they’re like 40 or 45°