Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Best Place to Car-Camp.

I want to car camp this Wednesday night before starting a 3 night trek. Where is the best place to Car camp? Horseshoe Meadows? The Portal? Onion Valley? (I hear good things about Horseshoe, can anyone verify this?)

All three are good options, and post-labor day, should be easy to get a spot at.

There are walk in backpacker spots at both the Portal, and Horseshoe, virtually always available this time of year.

This past weekend I opted for Horseshoe over Onion valley and it worked out great. The road to get there is good and the campsites are walk ins but only about 100 feet or less. There are many square acres of flat open space and many trails to choose from for short or long day hikes. The only draw back is that there are too few bear boxes and all were already full even though only a 3rd of the campsites were used. Be prepared to keep food in your car or have a few bear canisters. We had a heavy frost at night.

I have the same question. I see that Onion Valley is just 9200 feet vs 10,000 for Horseshoe. Wouldn't it be better to camp at the higher one to help with acclimization (all other things being equal)?

I was looking at the Mosquito Flat campground which is 10,300 elevation. I think you can hike to Mount Morgan from there, which I thought would be a fun prep hike after looking at Kathy/wingding's photos of her recent trip.

If any of these numbers are wrong, please correct me as I'm far from an expert on this stuff.

tchiker,
I tried to summarize all that in <a href="http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=004101;#B2">Develop your acclimatization plan</a>. I also included a link on Mono Pass and Mt. Dana. Yes, Horseshoe Meadow is better than Onion Valley.

The Mosquito Flat backpacker area is listed at 10,100 feet on the campground page. From there you can easily day hike up to Mono Pass (12,000 feet).

I prefer Horseshoe myself. You have 2 camping areas to choose from. If one is full try the other one. I have never had problems with bears.

Jeff, I would not advise to leave food in the car. The photo below was taken one year ago (9/17/05) at the Onion Valley trailhead parking. There was some food left in the trunk, including dog food.

Kurt, Agreed....however if all the bear boxes are full it would make sense to either hang the food or tuck away somewhere away from the car. Thanks for the clarification. Unless someone wants to keep all the windows and trunk open in the car