HIGH SIERRA TRAIL
August 2025
73 miles from Sequoia National Park to Whitney Portal
August 2025
73 miles from Sequoia National Park to Whitney Portal
After camping overnight at Lodgepole, we got our permit, packed up, and got to a late start at Crescent Meadow trailhead. We planned to camp at Bearpaw Meadow, but due to closure we stopped one camp earlier at Buck Creek. We saw a bear stroll past camp around dusk, and had a campfire before turning in.
Since we camped early, we had mileage to make up on day two. We had a steep morning climb up to Bearpaw, followed by a nice break at Big Hamilton lake. After lunch, the hot and exposed climb above Hamilton Lake was brutal, so we took another welcome rest at scenic Precipice Lake. We finally reached Kaweah Gap at 10,700 feet and had a long climb down to Big Arroyo Junction. Annoyingly our site was swarmed by mosquitos from the time we set up until well after dusk.
On day three, we started with a short climb and then took an easy detour to Moraine Lake, where we stopped for lunch and a swim. We continued down a steep decline to our planned campsite, Upper Funston Meadow. The site was hot with no breeze and a bunch of stagnant water, so we decided to push on to Kern Hot Spring. We were rewarded with a big site, a nice fire ring, and a soak in the riverside hot tub.
From here the trail started climbing again, and we took a recovery day. We hiked north along the Kern River and reached Junction Meadow by lunchtime. We relaxed for the afternoon and Ryan did some fishing.
We left Junction Meadow early to get most of the elevation finished before the heat of the day. At the JMT junction we took a break and Ryan caught a few fish in Wallace Creek. After a bit more climbing we took a scenic lunch break at Sandy Meadow, got a weather report from Crabtree Ranger Station, and arrived at Guitar Lake in the afternoon. With plenty of sunlight left we decided to push a bit further to camp about one mile past Guitar Lake. We set up tents in the shadow of Mt. Whitney and went to bed early.
On the last day we set early alarms to pack up and hit the trail by 2:55am. We dropped our packs at the ridge and made the summit by 5:45am to watch the sunrise. The views were incredible and worth the early start. We spent the rest of the day hiking downhill. We descended the 99 switchbacks and had an early lunch at Trail camp. At 12:15pm we arrived at Whitney Portal, caught a ride to Lone Pine, and celebrated with some real food.
© 2025 Will Krieger