Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Is the drought over?

We are missing the main storms , just a few rocks on the road the two we have had , Lone Pine Campground hit hard with the stream jumping the bank and flooding the area and road , all were directed down the dirt road to the North. Not much yet for this new system sprinkle then stops . Watch the webcam it updates every 30 seconds now. Many JMT and HST hikers reporting hours of rain , some quiting or coming out days early. Then the is there a Taxi ?

Death Valley got a repeat from some years ago , Looks like it will take awile to clean the roads and repair the damage. So if you are flying into Vegas you will need to take 15 to 58 then 395.

I rode into Death Valley yesterday to have a look.
The road in from Trona still has the Road Closed sign.

Wildrose Road could be opened to high clearance vehicles...
A few hours of a skilled graders time to fix it...
(Locked gates at the top and bottom of the canyon right now.)

The dirt road up past the Kilns did surprising well, but it's a lot rougher than it was after the recent grading.

Telescope Peak Trail has a few washouts that require your attention to get across.

On another note: I saw a snake on the trail on the way up and 3 bucks with incredibly large racks on the way down.

Just returned from a couple of days (August 10-11) in the Rae Lakes area. A few clouds, but not one drop of rain. Massive full moon was enjoyed. Camped with southbound JMT hikers who were soaked a couple of times the previous ten days. But they were still alive and excited about getting to Mt Whitney.

The plants and trees seemed to look better after a good watering. They needed and deserved it.

The road up to Onion Valley appeared normal and the parking lot was full. Some cleanup was still ongoing at the start of Foothill Road.

This afternoon the Mt Whitney cam appears "normal" for a change.

Jim



.

I rode through Death Valley to the Old Cottonwood Lakes Trail yesterday...

Rode past a CHP at the junction...didn't came after me, so I'm assuming he was there to prevent traffic heading towards Vegas.

Those roads in DV are a kick-in-the-ass when there's no traffic...

Navigation Skills have faded considerably...was doing a loop of Army/New Army, but ended up exiting out at Cottonwood Pass after visiting Chicken Springs Lake (what a mud hole)...