Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Portal lower gate will be closed and 🔒 locked

April 8 the gate will be locked at the Road Closed Sign
The County and Inyo National Forest will clear the road and parking lots .Expect the road to be closed till May 1 ,but could open sooner .I will post with updates as I receive them.
Please respect the closure ,heavy equipment will be working on the road and one rock needs blasting.Thanks

Thank you, Doug. I’m thinking about going up just before quota season starts… if the road is open and the conditions are good. I appreciate any updates.

Where do you park if the gate's locked and how much does it add to the approach?
Would we still be on snow?

The locked gate is about 3½ miles from the trailhead. There is plenty of parking just before the gate.

How much snow is there down at the locked gate? Is it possible to mountain bike up to the Portal?

None. And yes, people mountain bike to the Portal quite often, but not while the county is blasting the fallen rock and clearing the road for the next couple weeks, like this.

Got an update yesterday that you can walk up the road , Just make sure the road crew sees you MAKE eye contact and wait for the crew to motion you on . Road is dry to the Trailhead . Not sure what day they will blast but they will keep people clear of the blast zone. One large boulder is on the second switchback about 1.5 miles above the locked gate but any fallout from a blast could go down to the bottom of the hill.

The second smaller rock is in the canyon proper and would be easy to do a light charge just to split.

I sent this to facebook yesterday and here but was in the Hills and guess it didn't stick!

Oh high winds so more rock should come down the next few days.

Blasting in the morning Friday 12 April and will work on clearing the rock after .So expect the road to be closed to walking up all Friday until late evening.

Road should open this Friday ,soft open now to middle gate about 1 mile below trailhead.DON'T BLOCK THE ROAD,park at the overview about 1000' before the gate .
Still a closed gate near the trailhead ,just before the overflow parking lot ,If this gate is locked parking will be limited ,about 10 spaces and then along the road meaning if like last weekend you may not find a parking spot near the Portal.
I will post as the gates open.

Rock fall today about 2 PM went on for some time sounded like it came from the Meysan Canyon, that area is very unstable the last 4-5 years.
Forest Crew continued to clear the snow and sweep , also removed the upper gate so when the County opens the mid gate you can park in the Portal. My thoughts maybe sometime Friday 26 April the County will get word from the Forest Service they opened in upper gate and are OK with the County opening the road.
The snow was not that heavy this year for us but Just before the March 9 hike we did we got a DUMP, Our guess was 4' in the Portal and that was staying, so first year in many that a loader(2) was used to get the road cleared.

We are ready at the store , no water so will open sometime next week .

Jeff M took the lead and finished the 3rd edition of the Portal Book , added many great clean /clear color photos and placed many B/W to fit the stories. Richard P , Shin, and Cori got a few photos in also.Many of the photos will trick you , they look like busy days at the store but turn out to be some of our hikes before or after sneaky Jeff! We worked on the safety zones and as always much nonsense that many will not understand, Jessi summed it up one day "just leave it in he thinks in makes sense" So with the help of all the Portal Crew and many others the Book was printed last week.

Road opened this morning. 26 April give a big Thanks to the County Road Crew and the Forest Service Staff to get both sections opened.