High Sierra Trail
Sequoia National Park to Mt. Whitney · near Three Rivers / Lone Pine · Sierra Nevada / Yosemite
Hiking
At a glance
- Difficulty
- expert
- Route type
- point-to-point
- Distance
- 72 miles
- Elevation gain
- 15,000 ft
- Time needed
- long-haul
- Best season
- Mid-July–September (Kaweah Gap holds snow into July)
Permits and booking
- Permit required
- Yes
- How the permit works
- Sequoia & Kings Canyon quota permit via Recreation.gov, 6 months ahead; ~30 hikers/day start at Crescent Meadow during quota season (late May–late Sept). Permits picked up in person at Lodgepole. Select 'Overnight Exiting Mt. Whitney' handling. Bear canister mandatory.
- How hard the permit is to get
- 4 of 5
What is here
- Features
- West-to-east crossing of the Sierra · Precipice Lake (Ansel Adams' photo) · Kaweah Gap & the Great Western Divide · Summits Whitney from the west
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Not permitted
- Good for a first timer
- No
Hiking detail
- Nights
- 6–9
- Resupply
- None — carry all food (most parties don't resupply). Bear canister required; bear boxes at some camps.
- Intl tip
- Precipice Lake at Kaweah Gap is the trip's iconic image and a magical (if cold and exposed) camp — but Hamilton Lakes just below is the more sheltered, jaw-dropping basecamp. The Crescent Meadow start eases you in with gentle miles along the Chagoopa Plateau before the big climbs, which is exactly what your legs and lungs need before Whitney.
The guide
Many who have hiked it will tell you the High Sierra Trail is the single greatest backpacking route in California — a 72-mile w…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to High Sierra Trail — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 36.554, -118.749