Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Lone Pine with the kids

Hello fellow sierraddicts,

My 2 sons (7 and 5) and I will be heading up to the Whitney area early Saturday morning, and leaving on Sunday afternoon.

I was hoping some of you locals would be able to give me some suggestions on some cool things to do with them.

Here are some of the activities I was contemplating:

-Whitney portal for a short hike and of course lunch (or dinner) at the store.
-Horseshoe Meadows to play in some snow. Is there any snow left up there that is relatively close to the road?
-Alabama Hills for some scrambling and exploring.
-A walk through Bodie, Ca

I am not sure how many things we will be able to do, but any activities, sites you guys and gals can think of the would stoke out a couple little kids (and one big one) would be greatly appreciated

Thank you all so much for your time,

Brady

Looks like you got it pretty much covered. The only other thing I can think of would be fishing at the portal pond! Have fun makin' memories!

> -A walk through Brody, Ca

Do you mean Bodie?

Shine your headlamps above your heads and watch for bats dive bombing for mosquitoes at Horseshoe. Probably too early in the season for that though.

That is indeed what I meant

Bodie is a long drive from Lone Pine. It would probably be a full day round trip.

Bristlecone Pine Forest.

Steve,

For some reason I thought it was much closer to LP. That one is definately off the list.

brady,

a great little hike with kids at the Portal is the one across from the fishing pond. look south across the parking lot from the pond and you will see a trailhead sign for the Whitney Portal National Recreation Trail and a wooden bridge. Cross the bridge and your boys will be in wonderland. you can go all the way to Lone Pine Campground but with little ones you can go as far as you want and turn around. the trail runs parallel to the creek through the trees and there are boulders to explore and climb on and the trail even goes under two huge boulders that are leaning against each other and become a tunnel. it's a great little trail for little legs.

norma

I was there with full family two years ago to run the Wild West Marathon (usually I am in Lone Pine on solo backpack adventures). At the time my sons were 5 & 3, a little younger. They actually enjoyed spending a an hour or so a day at the local park on the north end of town. Good playground structure (not in the shade), good sidewalks (in the shade) for bike riding/racing. It's flat and the paths are short. There's some grass areas for other games (catch, frisbee, etc). If the weather is good, it might knock off a few hours if you've got picnic stuff and bikes with you. Fishing and hanging around the portal was good as well, but we had to go before much fun was had due to hunger...you probably know how that gets (I don't think the store was open that day). Enjoy.

All - I'm taking my Boy Scout Troop to the Portal June 19-21. We have four of the six camp sites on the lower family campground road reserved. On Friday on the way in I want to hit the highlights of the Alabama Hills, but honestly, I have only stopped there once. (Whitney fever). I have never even seen the Arch.

Besides the Arch (if I can find it) what else would be good for the boys to do there? Saturday we plan on being FIRST in line for pancakes before he hike up to LPL for some fishing. Saturday night will be Moose burgers an exploring the Portal area. I'm sure Sunday will come too quickly and we will be rolling south by noon.

I'm open to any and all suggestions - the Troop is on the younger side - 12/13 year olds with only a couple older boys.

Thanks................................DUG

DUG.. to hit the arch path turn north on Movie Road... go about a mile or a mile and a half until you come to a large turnout on the left side of the road. Park in the turn out. You'll find the trail head on the west side of the turnout... it's about 1/2 mile walk to the arch... down into the wash.. up the otherside... nice little stroll... there's a couple of other small arches along there too and lots of "climbing" for the boys to do. If you want a good list of the arches and a map of them stop in the Alabama Hills Cafe and pick up one of their paper placemats ... I'll look and see if the kids still have one from when we were up there...

DUG nice to see you back on the board.You are a BRAVE BRAVE man to take on that many Boy Scouts. I hope you have reinforcemennts.I just may be up at the Portal that weekend.I'll hunt you down if I do.

I WILL be at the Portal that weekend... Maybe I'll bring my Scout uniform too... can't decide if I'll help DUG or just sit back and watch though

Hey Southswell... another pretty neat place to kill a few minutes at is the Fossil Falls area just north of Little Lake. The kids should be a bit careful climbing around on the falls as the rock is slippery (dry falls from a long ago river formed out of an ancient lava flow)... but it's really neat to walk around. Lots of volcanic rock to check out...

Not only am I the "Outdoor Chair" (fancy name for the guy who likes to hike, has a big truck and room for the Troop trailer), but I think I just signed on to be a Cub Master of a new Pack forming locally. One hour a week is what they say.

Doc/SOCAL - would be great to see either of you up there! LMK and I can gather up the Troops and you can give them a pep talk.

No "big" hike planned - just LPL. I want to see how they handle a little altitude 1st.

*LMAO* Is THAT what it means??? I was under a different impression... and just one hour a week huh? Let me know how that works for ya...



Most definately!

SoCal, what you missed in the fine print was that it's one hour a week per Scout. <grin>

(Former Scoutmaster, current Committee Chair, District Roundtable Chair, rocks/rappelling training staffer, still going to summer camp with 56 Scouts and about 15 adults even though my son's a sophomore in college...hmmm...sounds like a hopeless case...)

Gootcha... lol... thanks Alan. I needed that clarification. I thought something wasn't adding up there.

(Current Assistant Scoutmaster, former Popcorn Chair, former Weblos leaser, current Outdoor Chair, HALTT leader )

HALTT Leader - Man I gotta get some of that training! Soon as I finish my 2nd weekend at Wood Badge that is. I tried to make one of my Wood Badge tickets - "Get a normal life", but they wouldn't buy off on it. Every time I try to get out, they drag me back in.