Dangerous Roads

Mount Whitney is the highest summit in the contiguous United States with an elevation of 14,505 feet (4,421 m). It is on the boundary between California'sInyo and Tulare counties, 84.6 miles (136.2 km) west-northwest of the lowest point in North America at Badwater in Death Valley National Park (282 feet (86 m) below sea level). Whitney Portal Road connects Lone Pine to Whitney Portal (the Whitney Portal Store is at the Portal, and the store is open in the summer). The road is closed in the winter, meaning it is not maintained or cleared of snow. However, it is not physically barred and climbers routinely drive as far as conditions will allow. The road is not gated or otherwise physically blocked.



Whitney Portal Road it's a short but spectacular drive that takes you about halfway up Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States. This paved road, with a total length of 13mi (19km) passes through the Alabama Hills (which you can see in the foreground), the scene of literally hundreds of cowboys films, but the road has a film history, too - perhaps most notable in the 1941 filmHigh Sierra starring Humphrey Bogart.



Whitney Portal is a great and difficult climb out of the high desert up towards Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the lower 48. Like most eastern Sierra ascents this one starts out tame and ends up tough. The grade generally increases as you climb so that a five mile stretch in the 2nd half averages 9%. The hill lets up just before the finish at Whitney Portal and a parking/hiking area (trailhead to Mt. Whitney). Whitney Portal is also very similar to the famed French climb of the Madeleine.



Whitney Portal Road is a damned thing to behold. It twists and turns through an otherworldly landscape known as the Alabama Hills, a set of bizarrely constructed rock piles, before setting on a fairly straight shot for the foothills of Mount Whitney. The vistas change dramatically as you draw closer to the mountains, seeming more and more massive until suddenly they overwhelm you, and you're a part of them, looking back down on the road, the hills, and the Owens Valley. In other words, there's plenty of time to think about what you're getting yourself into.



Directions - From highway 395 in Lone Pine, CA take Whitney Portal Rd west for 6/10ths mile to begin the climb where the road crosses the Los Angeles aqueduct.