Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Quick visit to Lone Pine Lake and Alabama Hills

The family and I will be up Wed. and Thurs. next week and want to hike into Lone Pine lake. Reading all the info and post I see we can go that far without a pass?..

Also want to visit the Alabama Hills. Any suggestions on where to go or where to get maps of the Hills?

The wife and I have become regular hikers in the San Gabriel's and want to get a taste of the "high country" we have 2 boys 9 & 6 and we are thinking that the trip to LP lake would be a nice afternoon family hike. Thanks for any help, comments, or suggestions.

You won't need a permit to hike to Lone Pine Lake. It is a little over 5.6 miles with a couple of stream crossings if you start at the kiosk/trailhead just down a couple hundred feet from the Portal Store. The old stock trail that starts next to the day use parking lot/Whitney Portal Falls (the BIG ROCK) bypasses these crossings and leads you right to the "John Muir Wilderness" sign. If you start during the late morning, you may want to pack some water, snacks, hat and sunscreen since the sun is pretty intense at that elevation. Your family shouldn't have any problems making the hike to the lake. On the way back you may want to navigate the stream crossings. Be sure to have camera ready in case someone takes a dunk. Hopefully, you will have LPL all to yourselves. You will not believe the solitude and serenity of that place.

The Visitor's Center had a map of the Alabama Hills with locations of the "windows" to take great pictures of Mt. Whitney.

Hope this helps.

Have fun up there.

Thanks for the info,especially how to avoid the creek crossings on the way to LPL. On the way back it won't matter if someone takes a dip. We all have hydration packs and the wife and I both have the essentials along with some extras (sunscreen, extra layer etc.)

Another quick question is we will be arriving in the early afternoon on Wed. would it be better to do the hills then and save the LPL hike till the next morning or visa versa? I was just looking at the weather reports and it would be cooler up at the portals.

Thanks

The Eastern Sierra Interagency Visitors Center can help answer a lot of your questions, but they do not necessarily have the latest information on trail conditions, etc.

Yes, Lone Pine Lake is at a lot higher elevation than the Alabama Hills, so it should be cooler there. On a clear day you can expect a temperature gradient of about 3 degrees F per 1000 feet of elevation (so it could be 15 degrees cooler up there). It all depends on what you want to do.

Thanks again for the info, we plan on doing both LPL and AH it is just a matter of when.

We will probably arrive in the early afternoon (leaving Palmdale at round 0900)so my thinking is it would be better to do LPL where its cooler then hit AH the next morning before it gets hot. Either way is fine with me but I'm just looking at the temps and the time of day.

If one was more important than the other I would say LPL.

One thing that you will enjoy hiking up to lone pine lake is escaping the heat of the Owens Valley. Free air conditioning. After leaving Whitney Portal and heading back down to Lone Pine you will feel like you are driving down into a furnace.....

+ @ti2d,

The trail you refer to as "the old stock trail" is it a pretty straight forward trail? With the kids with I just don't want to have to bushwack or hunt for the trail. Also is it about the same distance? It sounds like it would be a nice loop rather than the in/out the same way. I have tried to locate a trail map online that might show the different trails but nothing.

Thanks

See How Long is the Trail for additional insight on the two trailheads. The "pack trail" is the current main trail (not the old trail). You go about 0.3 miles further (and head east for a stretch) for the convenience of a gentle slope. Nonetheless. you have three more stream crossings.

Ok, I guess the next obvious question would be...how are the stream crossing conditions now? With a 9 and 6 year old hiking with us we would prefer to keep them dry till at least the way back.

And thanks for all the help, I really enjoy this message board!

Re: stream crossings... I was up there last weekend and they are not difficult to cross at this point... not a ton of water and decent sized bolders for crossing... for your first experience up I would recommend the regular trail near the portal store... easy trail... 2.8 miles each way.

enjoy!

bobj

Question, We will be looking to stay overnight in the Lone Pine area Wed. (20 June 07)any sugestions? I know...we should be camping but this was a short notice trip and although we have been hiking the last 6 or 7 months we havn't gotten into camping yet. That will be next.

Thanks!

Suggestions??? It sounds like you are looking for the newest motel in town. That is the Comfort Inn.

Otherwise, there is addional info in the feature topics at Lodging.

Has anyone fished at Lone Pine Lake or at Meysan Lake and, if so, is the fishing any good at either location?

Well folks I'm off duty at 0800 tomorrow and will be home and packing the car by 0900. Hope to be on the trail to Lone Pine Lake with the wife and kids by 1300 hours.

Hope all goes well and maybe we will run into someone from the message board. Hope everyone has a great week(end) and be safe.

Hey, if you're still on... I recommmend the Alababma Hills first, as the kids will then have an opportunity to become accustomed to the altitude (apparently, kids are more susceptible than adults to Acute Mountain Sickness-- I had a daughter who at age 9 became very ill at 9200 feet). Good luck with the trip, have the time of your life!

We were concerned about being in the Hills during the heat of the day so the plan is to do LPL Wed. after we arrive and then do the AH the next morning before it gets hot. I have read alot on AMS and will watch them closely. They both have hiked the 4-6 milers with us without any problem so we will see.. Thanks for the heads up though!

Fred, I see you or someone "cleaned up" my posts in that thread "How long is the trail?", removing links that no longer worked. Thanks. This morning I uploaded those maps to Flickr and edited my posts to have them in again. If there are any other old posts of mine that could use similar treatment, let me know which ones and I can do some more uploads.

Newbie, here is a picture of the biggest steam crossing, about 0.8 miles up the current trail, taken on 13 June. As you can see, there are plenty of stepping stones. Between stones, the water is typically 6" deep. (The only other stream crossing of consequence is near Lone Pine Lake, and that one has big logs in place to walk across on.)

Thanks for the photo, I havn't been up to Whitney since I was about 15 so its nice to get a visual especially taking the kids now.

Thanks again.

Bob,
I did a search for "picture" and your user ID (separate block) and came up with a number of links with missing images:

http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/181#Post181
Anyone recognize where I shot this?

http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/28715#Post28715
Back side trail conditions? Guitar lake and up?

http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/28528#Post28528
Will the snow ever melt?

http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/28259#Post28259
What lake is that?

http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/28106#Post28106
Thor Peak Memorial Weekend

http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/27396#Post27396
East Couloir on Thor

http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/27308#Post27308 Re: BIG MOUNTAIN PANORAMA!!!!!

http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/26819#Post26819
Re: Previous Accidents on Ebersbacher Ledges

http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/26655#Post26655
New winter home at Whitney Portal

http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/25886#Post25886
Re: Mountaineers route up...Main trail down...?Help...

http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/24766#Post24766
Whitney picture

There are more, but at least you have the last year covered.

Edit: If you edit any of those posts, you will see the img tag is still within. However, since the picture is lost on the web, no image shows in the message.

Thanks, Fred. Most of those are not important, but there was one topic talking about the fatality at the Ebersbacher Ledges several years ago. So I took the opportunity to upload some pictures that describe it, and added them to my album on Details through the Ebersbacher Ledges .