Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Camp at Lone Pine Lake?

Because Lone Pine Lake is in the wilderness area you have to have a wilderness permit to camp there...

OK Thanks. I guess I should try to trade in my day use permit for a canceled overnight permit when I arrive. If I am able to get a walk in overnight permit, is Lone Pine Lake a decent area? I am still trying to do most of the round trip in one day without a pack.

Lone Pine lake is off the main trail slightly but more "accessible" to the general public since a permit isn't required on the trail to that point. If you're looking for someplace to ditch your gear and are going to end up staying the night anyways, take the extra 30 minutes to go up into Outpost Camp. It's just another mile or so up the trail and the only people who are going to be going through there are permited hikers who have their own gear to deal with and aren't going to want to muck with yours! Thats just my opinion of course...

Thanks again for some good info. I did not realize that Outpost Camp is only another ~30 minutes past Lone Pine Lake. I am trying to plan out options to make this a good trip.

This message board is the best place to get the information!!!!

Look here and click on the "Learn the layout of the main trail" link. At the bottom of that section is a table with mileage and altitude...

Please allow me to introduce myself,I work as a Wilderness Ranger on the Mount Whitney Ranger District.

I would just like to take this opportunity to clarify a few things in regards to the permit process. First I would like to respond to the following post;

The Ranger tried to talk me into taking a current day permit (it was 11:00 AM) with the logic that a simple backpack to Lone Pine Lake will fulfill the overnight requirement; then I could do anything I wanted (such as day-hike the summit from the lake or move up to Outpost or Trail Camp).

I believe what is trying to be expressed here is that this person was offered the option of getting an overnight wilderness permit for that day of entry i.e. a permit for the current day. The sentence structure here could be misconstrued as a "day permit" which simply is not a true statement.

Here's the scoop on wilderness permit requirements on the Whitney Trail

The Mount Whitney Trail is the only trail in Inyo National Forest where a wilderness permit is required for day as well as overnight use. People day hiking beyond Lone Pine Lake enter an area known as the "Whitney Zone" and need a valid wilderness permit. The daily entrance quota for day hikes in the Whitney Zone is 100 people per day.

There is a separate daily entrance quota for overnight hikers on the Whitney Trail. It is 60 people per day.

Just like anywhere else in the John Muir Wilderness, anyone wishing to spend a night in the wilderness needs a wilderness permit. Lone Pine Lake is in the John Muir Wilderness and accessed via the Mount Whitney Trail. Therefore anyone wishing to camp at Lone Pine Lake (which is a lovely place to camp)would be subject to the overnight hiker quota of 60 people per day, whereas a visitor day hiking only as far Lone Pine Lake would not need a wilderness permit.

Hope this info helps

Dave Kirk USFS Wilderness

Kern: you didn't mention this option and it seems to be a secret to some people. On Tuesday, July 7 we took a chance and drove from Sacramento to Lone Pine without any permit (we had plans B and C ready too). At 5 p.m. there were still plenty of unused permits for entering the Whitney zone on 7/8 to 7/11. So we proceeded to Whitney Portal and we just missed the last vacant camp site at the reservable campground. The camp host told us we'd have to go down to the Lone Pine Campground at the base of the mountains. He never mentioned any other alternative! Just on a whim, and not wanting to lose altitude, we went back to the hiker parking lot by the Portal Store and lo and behold, there's a one-night walk-in camp ($10 per site) for hikers next to the parking lot. Since it was mid-week, there was plenty of unused sites there, so that's where we spent the night. I don't understand why this was such a secret or why the camp host wouldn't suggest someone try this option before going all the way back down the mountain. Good luck.

The cool thing about camping at Lone Pine Lake is that you will very likely have it to yourself. I just got back from Whitney and spent my first night at LPL. Nobody else was camping there and we didn't have to deal with the early morning foot traffic that you would see at Outpost. And to top it off, we got to get a little fishing in. Caught a total of five trout (two golden, three rainbow).

The walk in camp sites are great but not for our plans. We want a place to set up camp and leave it. We have one person that is going to just hang out at camp. We also want the camp set up so if someone has to turn back, they can head to the camp. The walk-in does not allow use to do all that since it's a one day use. But thank you for the idea.