Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Cottonwood / Horseshoe Camping

I've been reading quite a bit about camping at Cottonwood or Horseshoe in case the Portal campground is full. We're coming up early Friday Labor Day weekend to do the MR on Saturday, so this may be the case for us. Are Cottonwood and Horseshoe one and the same, or are they two different places? How do we get to them?

Horse shoe meadows is the campsite at the start of the trail to cottonwood lakes. There is only one campsite up there. From about 5 miles up Whitney portal road you take the Horse shoe meadows road south about 26 miles up to the 10000 foot campsite. In June the Horseshoe meadows campsite was only 25% full (Sunday/Monday). A few weeks ago when I was there the 22 sites were all taken by 5:00 pm(On Saturday night). It is a very nice place, but it is a little out of the way if you want to get an early start.

There are two campsites at Horseshoe Meadows. One is at the trailhead to Cottonwood Pass/Trail Pass and the other is at the trailhead to Cottonwood Lakes. I was there last weekend (Aug. 10) and the Horseshoe Meadow walk-in was fairly full (but it was a weekend) and the Cottonwood walk-in was a ghost town.

I would recommend staying there. The weather is cool, unlike staying on the valley floor (highs around 100 and lows 65 or so). I plan to do so next Monday Aug. 25. I clocked the mileage, from the stoplight in Lone Pine it is approximately 22 miles to Horseshoe Meadows.

Have fun!