White Mountain Peak
White Mountains (east of Bishop) · near Bishop / Big Pine · Eastern Sierra
Hiking
At a glance
- Difficulty
- expert
- Route type
- out-and-back
- Distance
- 14 miles
- Elevation gain
- 2,600 ft
- Time needed
- day
- Best season
- July–September · The road to the trailhead is rough & high · Serious altitude
Permits and booking
- Permit required
- No
- How the permit works
- No permit. The trailhead requires a long, rough drive to ~11,700ft (high-clearance recommended). A locked gate means you hike a road to the summit. NO water en route — carry all you need. Altitude is the crux.
- How hard the permit is to get
- 2 of 5
What is here
- Features
- Easiest 14er in California (14,252ft) · 3rd-highest peak in the state · Ancient bristlecone pines nearby · A walk-up, non-technical summit · Serious altitude training
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Allowed
- Good for a first timer
- No
Hiking detail
- Intl tip
- The trailhead is reached via a long dirt road past the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest (a must-stop — the oldest trees on Earth) east of Bishop. Combine the drive with the bristlecones and the Eastern Sierra 395 corridor. Acclimatize first (spend a night high) — the altitude is the real challenge on this otherwise gentle giant.
The guide
White Mountain Peak is California's most attainable 14,000-foot summit — at 14,252 feet the third-highest peak in the state, ye…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to White Mountain Peak — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 37.634, -118.255