Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board White Mountain access

Can anyone tell me what the road is like up to the trailhead at White Mountain. I read in here somewhere that it's 12,000 feet where you hop out of your car. Sounds like that should be a good place to acclimate before our 1 day. Looks like the pavement ends and you go quite ahile on dirt. Will my 2 wheel drive handle it. Will the trip be worth it?

I drove it in a Honda Civic a couple of years back. If you don't staying below 10 mph and pay attention all the way, you can do it in such an ordinary car.

I was up there three weeks ago in my truck but a Honda Accord pulled in just before me with no problems. Plenty of washboards and a few rocky places but many passenger cars are navigating the road just fine.

I love the Whites. The road is best negotiated in a truck or SUV. You can get up there in a car but it is slow going.

11,635' might be a bit much for some people to acclimatize. It is wide open, above the treeline and there are absolutely no facilities.

A word of advice if you stop in Schulman Grove just to go to the bathroom they are going to try to nick you for the $5/entrance fee. If you need to go and aren't going to Schulman use the johns at Grandview, Sierra Viewpoint or Patriarch Grove.

Bill

I had my van up there last year and it was no problem, will go up again in Sept. Last year had to pull out at 12:30am when my partner got sick.
To high for him plus he was sleeping in the car and cold all night long. I was in a tent sound asleep. So one more time up for me. I will be there on the 17th of Sept if anybody wants to come along.

We went up White Mountain July 1st and the road was quite doable. There were several passenger cars at the trailhead. The dirt road is 17 miles and some do camp at the trailhead. I recommend acclimating at the Grandview Campground, it's clean, free and 8,500', has pit toilets but no water. We felt no problem with the altitude after spending the night there. It's a beautiful area, and definitely well worth it!! Enjoy.

Like the guy I had to take back down the road said to me the next day after a day hike to Grass Lake, I'm not happy unless I'm over 10,000 feet. Could be true.

On a dirt road awhile!?? I just got back from White Mt. and the dirt road from the Shulman grove to the gate was just over 16 miles. thats 16 miles of rocks and elevation and washboards and steep grades and trucks on steroids that think they own the road. it took me over an hour in my 89' honda accord. that road sucks for a car, you could probably make it to the gate in 1/2 the time if you had a truck.

I drove the White Mtn Road in Aug 2001 in my Honda Accord. Took me close to to hours. We also did it last year in August but we rented an SUV, took just about an hour. We had a bad flat tire - one the rear tire of the SUV got 6 inch tear from a rock while going. It was pretty hard to jack up the SUV in the thin air.

Definitely recommend a SUV/truck.

I have been thinking of going up with my truck/camper. It's a 4x4 truck but it has a 2,100 pound camper on it. Do you think I'd have trouble getting up the road?

Altitude shouldn't be a problem since the engine is turbocharged but I guess the biggest problem would be if the road is too steep or narrow for a heavy truck with a fairly high CG. I had no problems getting up to Whitney Portal and Shepherd's Pass Trailheads with it.

Gary,
There was 32' Lazy Daze motorhome up there a few weeks ago so I don't think it is a big deal. Not a problem unless you are going to put it in a power slide on the turns. You will probably want to use a low gear in a few places going up and down to save your brakes. I wouldn't hesitate a bit with your rig.

drove it june 28 in a ford focus rental no prob. slower is better in a low clearance auto. took about an hour on the dirt road.

Scott - if a 32' motorhome and an Accord can make it up the road then I won't have a problem. Thanks for the info.

Trekrbear,

Was the campground crowded when you were there? I'll be going in mid-September, so I'm hoping it won't be a problem. Were there decent places to camp at the road's end?

JGranite, I've been there several times. I would suggest getting to Grandview by 2-2:30PM. After that it begins to fill up pretty quick. By road's end you mean the trailhead? Millions of acres of parking there.

AJ sherpa, if you're referring to where the dirt road ends at the gate where the two signs are as the trailhead to white mountain, then there are not millions of acres of parking. there is a very distinguished area to park your car. going out of this area onto the terrain surrounding the trail head is really damaging to the small amounts of vegetation that scrape out an existence there at 12,000 feet. there are signs all over warning only to drive and camp in established areas.