Snow-covered holiday for high country

On the Lassen Park Highway last week, crews measured the snow wall along the road at 28 feet high.

Though some plan for picnics, hikes and softball games in the Bay Area, three Tahoe resorts were open for skiing over the weekend: Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows in north Tahoe, and Heavenly Mountain in South Lake Tahoe.

A spring storm brought up to 5 inches of snow Saturday night to the Tahoe Basin. That was on top of a foot of fresh that arrived earlier in the week.

It’s a testament to conditions for the week leading up to Memorial Day weekend: Travelers can expect to hit a wall of snow at about 6,500 to 7,000foot elevations across the Sierra, Cascade and Shasta-Siskiyou ranges.

Below 6,500 feet, the roads, lakes and campgrounds are largely free of snow (outside of the past weekend’s dusting). As you climb above 7,000 feet, however, you hit the wall, where the snow is still piled high and snowplow crews have been unable to open five highways at mountain passes: Ebbetts Pass (8,730 feet) on Highway 4, Sonora Pass (9,623 feet) on Highway 108, Tioga Pass (9,943 feet) on Tioga Road/Highway 120 in Yosemite National Park, Mammoth Pass/Minaret Summit (9,265 feet) on Reds Meadows Road/ Highway 203, and Lassen Pass (8,500) on the Lassen Park Highway/Highway 89.

On Sunday in Yosemite, Tioga Pass had 10 feet of snow on the road, according to sensors. At Mount Shasta, the Everitt Memorial Highway is clear up to 7,000 feet on the flank of Mount Shasta to Bunny Flat. You’ll then hit the snow wall, about 7-8 feet high, with frozen drifts as high as 15 feet.

In the central Sierra on Highway 108, Caltrans crews out of Kennedy Meadows face 15 miles with a 3,500-foot gain to the pass, a stretch where grades can reach 25 percent. About 4 feet of snow is still on the highway there, according to sensors.

Add it up for Memorial Day weekend: The best bet through mid-June is to plan trips to lakes located in the valleys, foothills and national forests for lake-based camping, boating, fishing and hiking. Tom Stienstra is The San Francisco Chronicle’s outdoors writer. Email: tstienstra@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @StienstraTom