Yosemite!

my understanding is it's very nice, but pretty dry if that's what you're going for. I want to go to SF sometime in this season, but I want to go to Yosemite in spring ('07?) first, marine layer or not. my parents have been at least twice in early spring in recent years and say it's amazing then, but they're not backcountry people.

I want to backpack in the outside-the-park wilderness areas even more, but that's much likelier later rather than sooner.

The cool dry valley emptied of many of its many summer visitors, with the reddish afternoon sun to the west silhouetting the oaks, the cool approach of winter in the wind and the blue-grey sheer faces of granite are lovely. I would say eveybody needs more than a few days, but take advantage of the opportunity to see it any time of year.

if I could go anywhere of the type around that time, it would be the Southern Rockies

I'll go wherever the other guys want to. I think they've seen the famous sights when they were there before, so I think that's why they want to go into the backcountry. I figure at some point I'll be back there with my wife/family to see the touristy stuff, but the chances to get out in the middle of BFE seem to get harder and harder with each passing year. (But if I do this, that means I can't backpack in the Presidential range this winter, and getting out to the West Coast is such a bigger trip than staying in EST.)

I really want to go. I'm horribly envious that you lived there M. White.