What did you do for water? Enough streams flowing or did you melt snow?

Enough dry areas to camp around lake 2 and 3 or still mostly snow covered?

Looks great

West rim trail top down. It’s long, 16 miles or so, but extremely beautiful throughout and you’ll probably avoid the crowds given the length and the likely need to get a shuttle to the trailhead which a couple of the gear shops in Springdale can arrange for you.

Thanks! Indian cove and have rocks next to us so that should be helpful. Appreciate the guidance!

How has the wind been? I’m trying to visualize what “10-20mph with gusts as high as 30mph” means for camping happiness…?

It’s just not soft or comfortable on the inside, basically forces you to layer under it / can’t wear it over a t shirt

This comment is spot on

I recall the offline All Trails map for fiery Furnaces being helpful / pretty accurate to the official recommended loop trail. And as a prior commenter noted from their experience, you’ll likely end up crossing paths with others who can help along the way.

Now that said, the tone of your original post suggests you’re going to be nervous / paranoid either way and that could be a recipe for not having fun while you’re in the FF. Plenty of other trails in Arches if that’s an easier prospect solo or maybe you can find someone in the parking lot who wants to team up and hike with you.

Thanks for the comment and for the additional recommendations — really appreciate it!

Thanks for this. So when’s the time to go? Time it right to snag a walk up permit for late July / early August?

I like the access to easy scrambling rocks for kids. Would be tent camping

Ugh! I’m really sorry to hear that for you. Thanks for sharing your recent experience.

I’m bummed as the wind forecast is still strong through this week. I have a couple nights at Jumbo Rocks booked to take my 3.5 year old on her first camping trip. Been building the excitement up with her for weeks but I think I’ll have to postpone — super strong winds def not the right way to introduce the joys of camping to a toddler…

There are big trees in both parks. In terms of easy access there is Grant Grove in Kings and the Giant Forest in Sequoia among others.

If you want to stay in the park itself in a hotel (vs anywhere an hour or more drive away), Wuksachi Lodge is centrally located in Sequoia national park. It’s not cheap for what it offers room and food wise, but it’s super super convenient and you can get between the two parks easily from this location.

Three Rivers is close to Sequoia. Not as familiar with what’s available outside of Kings on the west side so others can weigh in.

How was the wind?

Thanks for this - I just checked recreation . Gov and you’re def right. I had been looking at dated information previously.

Thank you for the clarification!

Thanks for sharing this, reads optimistically that the road should be open but just with construction delays

Will be blunt but def not trying to be rude, just real: My brother in Christ, absent a world class network and a healthy dose of nepotism, the chances of pivoting to a credible PE shop from PWM is frankly near zero without ‘starting over’ and doing IB for a few years after PWM. The Goldman brand is nice outside of finance when your interviewer isn’t going to dig into the details of what you did, but anyone in the industry will know exactly what you did and if it is or isn’t relevant to the role you’re applying for. Alpine is a good shop, take the PE offer, skip a few years of IB grind, all is well.

Looks great!

I just crush those peanut butter filled pretzel bites during the hike for sustained energy