Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board cottonwood camping

The wife and I are interested in camping in the cottonwood lakes area next week, and I was wondering if there are any descent areas to camp that are not completly covered in snow. It would seem to me like it might be beautiful, but is it still to early?

I was at lake 1 over the memorial day weekend, the temp averaged around 35 at night and 60 in the day. the snow level was around 3-6 ft. The lake was frozen and the wind was howling. It was a good hike.

There is an automated weather reporting facility at Cottonwood Lakes which among other things will give hourly temperature readings.

Go <A href="http//cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryF?CWD">here</A>

Let's try again...........

http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryF?CWD

Just in case you want to camp in the Cottonwood walk-in or Horseshoe walk-in near the trailheads, there is little or no snow and the weather is quite pleasant not counting the front moving through today. Things can get a little breezy and cold so make sure you put up your tent to block the wind otherwise you'll use a whole can of starter fluid getting your coals going. Other than that quite pleasant. I imagine the lakes themselves are pretty snowy, I ran into heavy snow around 10.8k and the lakes are up around 11k. You'll find a campsite, trust me.