Mount Whitney

Mount Whitney is an outdoor activity in Lone Pine, CA, part of the Mammoth Lakes and Visalia guide. Cost: under $25. Trail is usually snow-free from July to late September.

Whitney Portal trailhead, 13 miles west of Lone Pine · Lone Pine, CA

Why you should go…

At 14,505 feet, Mount Whitney is the highest point in the contiguous United States. The Mt. Whitney Trail starts at Whitney Portal, at 8,300 feet in Inyo National Forest, and gains more than 6,200 feet to a summit that marks the southern end of the John Muir Trail. Permits are required, and most quota dates are awarded in a lottery you enter in February on recreation.gov. A stone hut finished in 1909, the Smithsonian Institution Shelter, still stands on top.

#mountain summit
#hiking
#sierra nevada
#wilderness permit
#backpacking

What's around here?

The closest stops to Mount Whitney, ordered by straight-line distance. A few more like it, plus some different kinds of fun so you can build a full day.

Sport & Outdoor
Outdoor Adventure
Alabama Hills
Free
Walk among rounded granite boulders and natural arches below Mount Whitney, on land where Westerns have been filmed since 1920.
9.5 mi awayMore like this
Sightseeing
History Buff
Manzanar National Historic Site
Free
Tour the site of a World War II camp where more than 11,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated.
13 mi awaySwitch it up: Sightseeing
Sightseeing
Iconic
General Sherman Tree
$25–$50
Walk a paved half-mile trail through Giant Forest to stand at the base of the largest tree on Earth by volume.
25 mi awaySwitch it up: Sightseeing
Sport & Outdoor
Iconic
Kings Canyon National Park
$25–$50
See giant sequoias at Grant Grove, then drive Highway 180 down into a glacier-carved canyon more than a mile deep.
26 mi awayMore like this
Sport & Outdoor
Iconic
Sequoia National Park
$25–$50
Walk among giant sequoias, stand at the base of the General Sherman Tree and climb the stairway up Moro Rock.
27 mi awayMore like this
Sightseeing
Outdoor Adventure
Bishop
Free
Eastern Sierra gateway town near Mammoth Lakes with access to hiking, fishing and Bishop Creek Canyon.
55 mi awaySwitch it up: Sightseeing