Mount Whitney Portal

Today, we drove from June Lake to Lone Pine, where we stayed at Boulder Creek RV Resort.  When we arrived, we wondered what to do this day as we were planning to spend the next day going to Ancient Bristlecone Pines NF.  We noticed on the RV park information that there were two roads up to the Sierras from Lone Pine.  We took the first, which led to Whitney Portal.  We knew nothing about it other than we were driving toward Mt Whitney.  So up we drove to about 8,374 feet elevation from our camp at 3.727 feet so it was up, up, up.  The road was good so no worries there and we weren't pulling the trailer.

Whitney Portal is the trail head for the eastern approach to Mount Whitney, which is at 14,505 feet so quite a bit above the trail head and 11 miles of a hike.  Mount Whitney is the tallest point in the contiguous United States.  We knew of Mount Whitney but didn't know we were staying at a campground directly east of it.  It was great to look out from our campground and see it along with all the other mountains in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

There were more people there than we expected.  The parking lot, the overflow lot, and the parking along the road were all packed.  We did manage to find a spot in the overflow lot and then walked up to the trailhead.  We didn't think about it being Saturday.  There is a beautiful small fishing pond, waterfall, three campgrounds, and a small place to eat, the Whitney Portal Store.  And a great view up of the mountains and down to the valley below.

As I said, we stayed at Boulder Creek RV Resort.  I wouldn't exactly call it a resort, but it was more pleasant than the last place we stayed.  Sites were farther apart and there were trees although they weren't all that big.  This was the high point, temperature wise, of our trip as it was in the high 90s.  As at all of our stops, we were careful to stay isolated from others so we used our trailer for eating, sleeping, showering, and only ventured out to pick up firewood.  Yes, they had burn rings so we continued our nightly campfire and s'mores.