Whitney Portal National Recreation Trail

Outstanding views of Mount Whitney (the highest peak in the continental United States) and the eastern Sierra escarpment, Lone Pine Creek, the Alabama Hills, and the White and Inyo Mountains are the key features of the Whitney Portal National Recreation Trail. The trail begins in the Lone Pine Campground at 5,900 feet elevation in the Great Basin Desert and climbs four miles along the south rim of Lone Pine Creek to Whitney Portal at 8,400 feet elevation in the sub-alpine zone of the Sierra Nevada.

Whitney Portal is the beginning trailhead for the Mt. Whitney Trail, which trekkers follow when they want to summit Mt. Whitney.  It boasts a campground, some side hiking trails, and a camp store to supply hikers and campers.

The trail we hiked - the Whitney Portal National Recreation Trail - was constructed from the town of Lone Pine to Whitney Portal in 1904, providing access to the peak of Mt. Whitney and opening up much of the area to tourism, as well as high altitude scientific research based at the 107-year old stone hut on the summit of Mt. Whitney. Abandoned in 1933 when the Whitney Portal Road was constructed, the trail was reconstructed and designated a National Recreation Trail in 1969.

The trail parallels scenic Lone Pine Creek. The Forest Service has determined that 8.6 miles of Lone Pine Creek from its headwaters to the National Forest boundary to be eligible for National Wild & Scenic River protection due to its outstanding scenery and recreation values.

Our hike was almost 9 miles, with elevation gain of 2,500 feet, and a similar elevation loss on our way back to where we started.  It proved to be a challenging hike.  Here is Dave, pointing the way the trail proceeds up to Whitney Portal.  Mt. Whitney can be seen up the canyon on the right, and Lone Pine Peak on the left:

As we hiked up the moraine ridge above Lone Pine Creek, we looked back toward the Alabama Hills and the Owen Valley, with the Lone Pine Campground, where we left the Jeep, in the foreground:

It turns out that, this weekend, Lone Pine hosts the Wild Wild West Marathon, which offers a 50-mile run, a 50k run, a marathon, and a 10-mile run.  The 50-mile runners get to run up our trail to Whitney Portal, and then back down again, as part of their route.  As we worked our way up the trail, we met a young fellow who, with his puppy, was hanging pink flags from trees as blazes for this weekend's runners.  Signs were also placed along the trail to help the runners find their way:

As we started gaining altitude, our trail gave great views of Lone Pine Peak:

Climbing the first foothills and rounding the shoulder, we started up and into Lone Pine Creek Canyon, and got some of our best views of Mt. Whitney:

Views of the highest Sierra peak just kept coming, and this was the best we got:

One of the most interesting figures associated with Mt. Whitney was Norman Clyde (1885–1972), a mountaineer, mountain guide, freelance writer, nature photographer, and self trained naturalist. He is well known for achieving over 130 first ascents, many in California's Sierra Nevada and Montana's Glacier National Park. He also set a speed climbing record on California's Mount Shasta in 1923.  Clyde was born in Philadelphia, the son of a Reformed Presbyterian minister. He attended Geneva College graduating in the Classics in June 1909. After teaching at several rural schools, including Fargo, North Dakota and Mount Pleasant, Utah, he enrolled in graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley.  He began climbing in the Sierra Nevada in 1910, when he visited Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks.  On August 16, 1931, Clyde, with three climbing associates, completed the first ascent of the East Face of Mount Whitney, which is the highest peak in the contiguous United States.  He was known for his rambles all over the Sierra, bearing a huge pack on his back, reclusive yet sociable, intellectual yet as simple as a tramp.  As we climbed the trail, we thought of him.

Once we rounded the shoulder of the near mountain and started following Lone Pine Creek up the canyon, we had continuous views of the loud, boisterous stream as it crashed down through the canyon:

About a mile from our destination, the trail began threading its way through, around, under and over huge granite boulders thrown down from the peaks in front of Lone Pine Peak.  Here, Kathy conquers one of the cheeky boulders:

About 2/3 of our way up, we had to cross Meysan Creek.  One of the two hewn logs that had comprised a bridge had been washed out of position, leaving us to work our way carefully across the remaining wooden beam:

All along the trail up the canyon, we were greeted by huge Ponderosa Pines.  Kathy had to find the biggest one to hug:

At the end of the trail in Whitney Portal, we looked up to see this spectacular waterfall, feeding the stream with heavy snowmelt.  The U.S. Forest Service had only opened the Whitney Portal to traffic a few days before we hiked and, while we didn't have any significant snow on the trail, we saw snow all around at the Whitney Portal. 

Here we are, in a self-portrait with the upper trailhead at Whitney Portal:

Once at the Whitney Portal day use area, we sat down to eat our lunch and rest our weary feet.  Kathy spotted a snowpile and thought it would be refreshing to put her feet into it.  Here she is, experiencing the thrill of the freshness of snow on bare feet:

After lunch and a good rest, we started back down the trail.  It wasn't long before Kathy encountered a huge boulder buddy and she cuddled up to him:

The trail was remarkable for having no blazes, although the trail was distinct the whole way and there were no side trails to confuse us.  We had some help from the pink flags that volunteers for the Wild Wild West Marathon were pinning to trees along the trail.  We found only one original "National Recreation Trail" blaze, which was a square of tin with the "National Recreation Trail" logo printed on it.  Even this blaze had been ravaged with bullet holes - an apt symbol for an unfortunate American fetish for shooting guns:

Lone Pine Creek kept us company as we worked our way down the trail:

It's hard to understand how vigorous this stream was without seeing and hearing it in action.  Check out this video of Lone Pine Creek, which we took as we hiked:

Once we returned around the shoulder out of Lone Pine Creek Canyon, our progress was uneventful, except for this dramatic view of Lone Pine Peak, which surprised us as we neared the desert floor:

It wasn't long before we reached the point where we began, at Lone Pine Campground in the Alabama Hills.  We gratefully slipped into our seats in the Jeep and enjoyed a short ride back to our campground, ready to plan our adventures at our next stop traveling north on U.S. 395.