John Muir Trail
Yosemite Valley to Mt. Whitney · near Lone Pine / Mammoth Lakes / Yosemite · Eastern Sierra
Hiking
At a glance
- Difficulty
- expert
- Route type
- thru-hike
- Distance
- 211 miles
- Elevation gain
- 46,000 ft
- Time needed
- long-haul
- Best season
- July–September (south-to-north gives best snowmelt timing)
Permits and booking
- Permit required
- Yes
- How the permit works
- Yosemite JMT lottery via Recreation.gov, 24 weeks in advance for Donohue Pass exit quota. Southbound from Happy Isles is the classic (and hardest to draw). Bear canister required the entire length. Finishing at Whitney Portal needs no separate exit permit.
- How hard the permit is to get
- 4 of 5
What is here
- Features
- 8 major passes over 11,000 ft · Evolution Basin & Muir Pass · Thousand Island Lake · Finishes atop the lower-48's highest peak
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Not permitted
- Good for a first timer
- No
Hiking detail
- Nights
- 14–21
- Resupply
- Resupply at Tuolumne Meadows, Red's Meadow, Muir Trail Ranch (mail-drop), or via Kearsarge/Bishop Pass side exits. Most hikers carry 5–7 days between resupplies.
- Intl tip
- The single hardest logistical piece isn't the walking — it's the Whitney Portal exit and the car shuttle. The trailheads are 400 driving miles apart. Most solo hikers use the Eastern Sierra Transit Authority buses along Highway 395 or arrange a shuttle service out of Lone Pine or Bishop. Book any Muir Trail Ranch resupply bucket months ahead; they cap the number they'll hold.
The guide
The John Muir Trail is the reason many people become backpackers, and the reason many others save it for the end of a long appr…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to John Muir Trail — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 37.734, -119