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

Another landmark near the intersection of the Queen Mine Road closer to the highway than the house of ill repute Laura mentioned is a sizable old rusted metal tank on its side. The tank like the house is on the opposite side of the highway from the turn. Used to have a rather humerous bit of graffiti on it but may not be suitable for the message board ;-)

Several years ago we did the dirt road in a Toyota Pruis,we got within about a mile of the last gate and had to park because of snow. But no problems at all with a car with about 4 inches of ground clearance. The road was in better shape than the paved roads at home.

What kind of condition do you think the road will be in this sunday with these lastest fronts? Passable to the grove perhaps?

Whatever dumped on the southern end of the Whites (south of White Mtn, that is) seems to have melted off. Of course, a lot of the road beyond the Patriarch Grove swings along north faces, so hard to say. But I would guess Patriarch Grove is reachable.

Great! Good enough to justify a trip up to see! I don't think I could be disappointed with even a short trip into the Whites.

And Thank You!!!

I got my low clearance 05 Corolla within a mile of Barcroft Gate no problem. Anything with more than 5 inches of clearance can make it no worries. The road should be completely passable by this weekend.

We did that road about 5 years ago. My brother's Jeep Wrangler has a tight suspension and it was totally wrong for that road. Something had worn the road into cross ruts. We had to go very slow, to keep our guts from shaking right out of our body. I want to do it again. My brother didn't make it that day, but that road is what's keeping us from going again. We had to go very slow and in the middle of the night it seemed like it took forever. It felt like hitting small speed bumps, one after the other, for twenty some odd miles. I wouldn't beat up my own car on that road, but would consider renting a car. Go for it.

Thanks. How fast exactly were you going? I've got a 4 wheel drive vehicle, but it isn't a true, rugged 4 wheel drive. If we go, we're heading up in late July.

I've been up there twice in my Subaru Forester AWD. I didn't drive it like it was a paved road but I didn't have any problems. Have you ever driven the road to the Fish Creek TH to San Gorgonio? I don't think the White Mtn road is as rough as that.

The quality of the road depends in part on when it was last graded.... There can be a fair amount of variation as recent trip reports confirm.

The road is in good shape (week of June 24) with no ruts. On the other hand, weather on Monday was cold, high 20's and low 30's, with high winds and some sleet; also there was poor visibility, especially above 13,500. The crop circles were the only things visible from the summit when I was there (around noon.) But that weather front moved out and the weather is now quite sunny.