Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Camping at the Portal

Can anyone offer insight on camping at the portal? I've read some official sights and looked at old posts but am still confused as to how to secure a campsite and what the tips and tricks are.

I saw the thread on favorite campsites but not much info on reserving them. How far does one walk to the trailhead and where do you park? Can you park your car up close on the day of the entry, even if your campsite is not as close?

We have a group of six that hopes to spend July 28th at portal, then go up the main trail on the 29th. I know this is an old subject but any considerations or links are welcome. Thanks.

I suppose I'm really wondering if a party of six has much chance of getting one of the 16 one-night only campsights at the trailhead if we arrived in late afternoon on a Wednesday.

I'd recommend staying at the reserveable campground down the road from the Portal. Click on the Gampground Info button on the main page of this site for additional info.

For the walk up sites at the Portal, it's really hard to say if sites would be available. Arriving late in the afternoon would make it tougher.

Hiiker

thanks and one more query.

what do hikers do with their cars when they go up the trail? let's say we leave our campsite on the 29th, do we drive up to trailhead and drop off most of the hikers and gear, and someone drives the car back to a designated parking area? how far away is that from the trailhead?

geez i did a search on parking and found that a lot of people use the main trail "overflow" lot. if someone can tell me about how far that is from the trailhead in walking time it would pretty much clear up all my auto logistic planning thoughts. thanks.

Sounds like you are wondering how to reserve a campsite at the Portal. Go to <a href="http://www.reserveusa.com/">Reserve USA</a> to reserve a campsite. Click <a href="http://www.reserveusa.com/jsp/commonpage.jsp?goto=/nrrs/ca/whtp/newindex.html">here</a> to go directly to the Whitney portal campground and check and book a reservation.

You may also want to consider camping at Horseshoe meadows if the campground is full at the portal. It's on a first come first serve basis, it's at 10,000ft elevation and about 20 miles from Lone Pine.

A third alternative is to camp at Lone Pine campground. Its part way between Lone Pine and whitney portal. Not much elevation though, and is hot normal desert camping there. You can reserve these campsites there on <a href="http://www.reserveusa.com/">Reserve USA</a>.

I agree,
if you can't get a campsite at Whiney Portal, you shold really think about Horseshoe Meadows. The elevation is GREAT for acclimatizing, (sp?) and it's generally a LOT easier to reserve. The drive to the portal is only about 20 mins from there.

RE: Parking;
Depends on what time you start .. If early enough, you may find a good parking spot. Otherwise, just drop everyone off and find parking down the road. I've been lucky enough to find parking right next to the trailhead, and also have had to park a mile down the road .. luck of the draw.

Good luck,
...tg...

Last year I drove up somewhere around noon without a reservation and got one of the available open sites without having a reservation. There were not many sites at that time. Since consecutive nights were not available, food could not be stored at the campground for more than that one night.

Since I had quite a bit of car camping food, I actually used the bear boxes at the TRAILHEAD parking area to store most of my food stuff when I first arrived when I noticed that the bear boxes could be very packed and I did not want to hassle early in the morning as I started my backpack trip.

I started hiking around 7am and there were parking spaces in mid-july, mid-week.

When I returned from Mt Whitney I decided to stay another night at the portal campground and again lucked into a free open space.

But if I were you, I would make a reservation.

If you reserve for the night after your hike you could leave your food in the campground bearbox and have a spot when you get down. You could also leave your car. I would guess parking at the campground would add 1/2 mile to the hike in each direction???

Last June, I spent Thursday night at the Portal campground. I think I reserved the spot in March or April. Then Friday morning, I tore down camp, and drove up to the trailhead around 7AM. Parked right next to it actually. I put a few things in the trailhead bearboxes and started hiking.