Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Camp Site Reservations

My group wants to stay one night at the Whitney Portal camp ground to start acclimating to the altitude. I read something about reservations at the camp ground, but was not clear about backpacking site reservations. Does anyone know if reservations can be made?

There are backpacking sites available which are walk-in as well as the reservable campsite in the Portal campgrounds. I would recommend trying the walk-in sites at the Portal first and if none available, drive to Horseshoe Meadows where the sites are walk-in (and FREE!! my kinda price!) but are primitive. The drive is about 50 minutes from the Whitney Portal so just allow for this extra time. Actually, the Orientation notes for Whitney first timers gives some more details about this topic.

You can make resrvations for the Whitney Portal Campground here. It would be $28 to make a reservation for 1 night at the portal. $19+$9 reservation fee.

The Portal walk-in backpackers camp is $8 first come first serve.

Horseshoe Meadows walk-in backpackers camp is $6, first come first serve. I agree it would be better to stay there for a night, if you don't mind the drive.

I would recommend that you reserve a tent space at Whitney Portal. Site #9 is superb. The campground is very convenient to the trail head, and you have access to burgers and fries at the Whitney Portal Store (i.e., no cooking). You may want to consider two nights at the Portal for better acclimation, with a day hike to Lone Pine Lake, or a drive and a day hike in the Horseshoe Meadows area.

What do you do if you arrive from the back country at the Portal with the intent to stay one night and head back out but no camp sites are available?

Sprawl yourself out on a bench or sleep against a tree and bat mosquitoes all night?

Uhhhh, you use the backpackers campground, with a one- nite limit at $5(?) pp.

And if it's full?

I will be getting to Whitney Portal on a Saturday but to make it even worse it will be July 4th Saturday so something tells me there is going to be allot of people.

Hmm. When our study group stayed there for two weeks during the research phase, at the height of the season, it was never full one night.

But lets say it is. You can march off into the woods, and find a level spot. Totally legal and ok. North of the road would be a nice quiet place, for example.