Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Onion Valley to Cottonwood Trailhead

I am planning a solo trip next week from Onion Valley to Cottonwoon lakes trail head. Here is my itinerary.

Day 1: Hitchhike from Cottonwood to Onion Valley and hike to Bullfrog lake if enough time.
Day 2: Bullfrog to just before Forrester Pass
Day 3: Forrester pass to Wallace creeek area (before or after to avaoid the reported Mosies)
Day 4: To Guitar Lake or tarns above
Day 5: Whitney summit - then descend past Pinacle Peak, the dreaded sand hill, around Upper Crabtree lake and into Miter Basin
Day 6: Relax in Miter Basin and make my way to Soldier Lake area.
Day 7: Up Langley then camp at Cottonwood lakes area.
Day 8: hike out

My biggest question is the route from the Whitney main trail to the Sand Hill. Is this route obvious. Once I get to upper Crabtree The route has been described well.

Any other suggestions are appreciated, I have reviewed all posts on this site, and so I am comfotable with trail conditions.

you might want to check on camping restrictions at Bullfrog lake. For some reason, I think it is still closed to camping. You might want to stop at Kearsarge lake or down to Bubbs creek.

Sounds like a great trip. Having just come the opposite way, finding discovery pinacle from the sand hill was a bit tricky since there are alot of peaks and pinnacles there. But, the crossover pass is a few hundred yards down from trail crest sign.

We came over the pass, then dropped our packs on the main trail. This first picture is taken from the that point, looking towards Trail Crest, which is the in the right 1/3 middle portion of this pic.



This next one is looking up at the pass, where we came from, and dropped our packs. Not the best, but that big rock mass was a good landmark. Discovery pinnacle is up and to the right from this view.



And this is from the main trail, looking down. You can see it's pretty steep going up to the right.



You really can't go wrong in this area, +/- 100 yds. It all opens up on the top, then you drop over to the hill. If i had a much wider shot of the area, it would be better to show.

Here's something new. I zoomed into the area in Google Maps and put a marker at the pass. You can see the trail just North of this point. Discovery pinnacle is just to the left. This actually does a great job at showing the "sand" hill and the lake way below. Try this link: http://tinyurl.com/nbgqdk

Let me know if you have other questions.

Blake

Thank-you both for the information it will help greatly. I will post a trip report afterwards.

Bullfrog is closed to camping. You can camp at Kearsarge lakes.
The bugs were hell in Vidette Meadow and Wallace Creek areas about 2 weeks ago. The camp before Forester Pass was bug free.