Eastern Sierra
October 2026

Dates: September 30-October 4, 2026

People: Mark, David

Itinerary

• 9-30 (Travel Day, Death Valley)

• 10-1 (Mount Whitney)

• 10-2 (White Mountain Peak)

• 10-3 (Mammoth Lakes)

• 10-4 (Travel Day)

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 30

I began the day watching Sarah's class lead Chapel at Trinity, before heading home and then having mother pick me up to take me to the airport. We left at 9:13 for the airport. She got me dropped off and I was through security without any trouble. I did my morning walk at the airport and made an effort to get most of the day's steps in and so spent the better part of an hour walking back and forth down the terminal. I hit Chick-fil-A for a breakfast/lunch snack before the flight. 

At the gate they were celebrating a woman named Nancy, who had been serving Southwest for 31 years and was retiring today. She was getting claps and congratulations from everybody as they boarded.  We started boarding early, but overall it took forever and we left late. Boarding just seemed so slow with people taking forever to put bags in bins and clear the aisle. We pushed back 10 mins late.

During flights I had a second viewing of the movie Oppenheimer. It was cloudy most of the route and so we missed seeing Colorado. It did clear over Utah and we saw Bryce at a distance and Zion up close.  The views of Zion were pretty fantastic.

We arrived in Las Vegas nearly on time. David had gotten in 30 minutes earlier and was heading for the rental car. By the time my bag came out I only waited about 10 minutes and then David arrived with our Nissan Sentra which we would drive for the week 

After pick up we stopped at a Walmart to grab stove fuel, and a few other foods and drink for the week. We even grabbed a gallon jug of water which would prove very useful throughout the trip. We got lunch at a burger joint called Freddy's. They made a great burger. David was familiar with them from Little Rock. We then left town from the southwest side. 

We made a gas stop at Maverick in Pahrump to top off tank before heading into Death Valley. That town would have the best gas prices on the whole trip. 

On our way into Death Valley we stopped at Zabriskie Point and got our first taste of the heat. We had a short hike there on the paved path up to the point with great views. When you think of Death Valley you usually think of the heat and the low point at Badwater. But we found that it was quite beautiful and scenic just looking around on the drive through death valley. 

Before driving down to Badwater Basin we stopped at the Furnace Creek visitor center. We saw the classic thermometer and we're surprised to see it say 88°, as the car said 103. Not sure what was going on there. When we got down to Badwater the car topped out at 104. We did a brief hike out onto the salt flat at Badwater. We were intrigued by a white sign halfway up the hillside there that showed where sea level was at. Almost 300 ft above you. 

After leaving Badwater we continued our route up to Whitney Portal. We drove by the Mesquite Dunes. We also drove through Stovepipe Wells. We went over Towne Pass 4,956ft (78°).  Along the way I realized that we were essentially driving the entirety of the Badwater 135 ultra course. 

We made it to the small town of Lone Pine at 6:56 p.m.  We made it up to the Whitney Portal campground at 7:13 p.m.  It was quite dark of there. We found our site and set up the tent at our camp.  Once the tent was in place we drove up the mile plus on the road to see the shop at the trailhead hoping it was open. Google Maps had said 8:00 p.m. but the shop was already closed.

Back at camp we cooked our freeze dried suppers. I tried the relatively new Mountain House Cheesy Pepperoni Pizza Bowl. It was good, had these doughy bits that simulated the crust, and then the pepperoni and cheese and sauce tasted similar to the other pasta entrees they make.  

After supper we made every effort to get ready for the big day at Mt. Whitney tomorrow. It was a very pleasant evening with lots of stars out and the temps probably did not go below mid fifties.

THURSDAY OCTOBER 1

I was mostly up at 2:30 a.m., but was able to stay in my sleeping bag till 4:30. Having a slightly uncomfortable sleep set up, coupled with the high elevation, coupled with the anxiety of a humongous hike did not allow for much sleep.  When we got out of the tents we were met with an amazing full moon. You really didn't even need the headlamp to see with that bright moon right overhead illuminating everything. We grabbed some bites to eat and got everything ready for a hike and then drove up to the Whitney Portal trailhead. We were getting started around 5:19 a.m.

Mt. Sherman 2026 Trip Report

It was 5:51p when we got back to the trailhead. We were pleased to see that the shop was still open. We went inside and each of us grabbed Mount Whitney benchmarks. This was to go with the Death Valley benchmark that we bought the day prior. We noted the shop had all sorts of things to pick up including food and cold drinks. The shop was closing right away at 6:00 p.m. 

We drove back to our our campground site and relaxed. What a long day. We both had Mountain House freeze dried lasagna for supper. It didn't take much effort to polish off all those calories. 

Being as tired as we were there really wasn't much else to do for the evening. This tiredness let us to the conversation of tomorrow. I think at first neither of us wanted to say it, but eventually it came up whether we really wanted another equally large effort to happen again over the next two days. It didn't take too much for us to decide that it just didn't sound like fun to do another 6,000 ft with 11 miles the next day. A 12 and a half hour day on Whitney really got us. We decided that in the morning we would head out to Lone Pine for some internet to then do some research and figure out our next step.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 2

We were able to sleep a little better last night, tired legs will do that to you.  It was around 6am when we got up today.  We set about tearing down camp and getting some food.  We hadn't 100% decided today's plan but we knew it wasn't to hike up to Shepherd Pass.  It was 648 when we left our Whitney Portal camp.

We drove into Lone Pine and sat in the parking lot of a gas station with a Carl's Jr.  We were weighing all sorts of ideas for what would make sense today. Were there other high peaks with more reasonable distance?  Was there something non-peak-like to do?  We loved the idea of doing Boundary Peak but decided on that for Saturday as something to do on the drive back to Vegas.  David loved the idea of doing White Mountain Peak, whose trail was a class 1 dirt road.  The distance was 15 miles but it didn't seem too difficult.  The challenge was 16 miles of dirt road to drive into the trailhead.  A dirt road notorious for giving flat tires and with our rental car and the sheer remoteness of it I wasn't enticed. Ultimately David had me convinced to give it a go.

We drove up to Big Pine, CA and then took Hwy168 into the mountains to the clear turn off for White Mountain Road.  The first 10 miles of this was paved and good driving.  There were lots of signs for the Ancient Bristlecone stuff with the park service along the way.  We stopped at the Sierra  View overlook along the way for a very quick hike up to the beautiful views.  The dirt road portion finally began and we took it slow so as to avoid getting a flat.  By Colorado dirt road standards it wasn't too bad.  The Jeep could have made easy work of it but we really didn't want to risk anything.  The drive in took us nearly 2 hours.  It was a beautiful drive along the way as most of it was without trees and lots of views.  We were doding small rock along the way but at no point was clearance ultimately an issue for our rental vehicle.  One of the uphills got just steep enough we spun our tires once or twice, but it was ultimately passable by a 2WD.

We got to the trailhead at 10:55am.  Figuring the route itself would also be exposed to the sun and with no water along the way we each opted to carry 4 liters to play it safe.

Mt. Sherman 2026 Trip Report

It was 4:30p when we got back to the car.  We quickly hit the road with hopes of just making it back out without any issue.  For some reason the drive out seemed more difficult.  While David drove, I got out in several places to move football sized rocks to help us along with clearance.  It brought back memories of driving down the South Colony Road in Colorado almost 20 years ago.   It took us a hair over 2 hours to drive out and we were glad to hit that pavement.  As we drove by the Sierra View Overlook we noticed a few cars there now who had driven up to catch the sunset there.  What a great idea, beautiful spot for it!

It was past 7pm when we got back out to Big Pine. As we hit town we pulled over to start researching our next step.  As I did more research on the possibility of hitting Boundary Peak in Nevada I discovered that you really need 4WD to get near to the trailhead. So we were going to have to scrap that idea for tomorrow.  Now we didn't have a plan for tomorrow and we didn't have a plan for tonight.  We at least had a plan for supper.  We ordered a 2 medium pizza deal at the Domino's in Bishop and drove up there to pick it up and sit and eat.  We eat ate a whole medium while we did our research for the next day.  

We finally decided upon driving up to Mammoth Lakes the next day.  We looked at National Forest campground options to sleep the night.  There were several on the way down to Bishop Basin, southwest of Bishop, CA.  The concern there was vacancy if we drove the 15-20 minutes to get in there.  We finally went the easy route and called the Brown's Town Campground there in Bishop and they said they had room.  We went with that.  They were on the south side of Bishop and a nice family campground.  We found a tent site and parked there for the night.  There office was closed but the operator on phone told us we could pay in the morning when the office opened. 

SATURDAY OCTOBER 3

We tried not to be in too much of a hurry today with a lighter itinerary scheduled.  We certainly weren't feeling too many regrets about not being up at Shepherd's Pass with many many miles to go.  Instead we were up at 6:40, packed up our camp there in Bishop and left at 7:26am for Mammoth.

In our research we found out that Devil's Postpile National Monument is located on the west side of Mammoth and so we made that our first destination of the day.  After the roughly 45 minute drive from Bishop to Mammoth we rolled by town and then to the entrance for the NM.  They were doing work on the road and holding to a traffic quota and so most everyone was required to ride shuttle buses down to the ranger station.  David with his military ID was able to get our vehicle through.  So we drove down the currently-being-renovated road to the meadows and on to the parking near the ranger station for Devil's Postpile.  The primary parking, which was fairly small was closed, so we parked a quarter mile up road at the overnight hiker parking lot.  This was around 8:45am.

From the Ranger Station, which essentially functions as the tiny visitor center, we hiked 0.4 miles on a nice trail with many other tourists to the viewing area for the Devil's Postpile.  Its interesting, but there is not much there.  Lots of people taking pictures.  The hiking trails branched in a number of directions for people to go on to some waterfalls or also to join up with the John Muir Trail at Red's Meadow.  We took a short hiking trail to the top of Devil's Postpile which proved very interested.  You could see the tops of the hexagonal shaped columns that make it what it is.  On our drive out from Devil's Postpile we saw a coyote walking the side of the road right by our vehicle.

We drove back up to Mammoth Lakes and around town to gain the trail start for the Dragon's Back rail up the south side of Mammoth Mountain.  This led us to Lake Mary Rd and the Twin Lakes area where we found roadside (and lakeside) parking along the road.  It left us perhaps a quarter mile walk to the Twin Lakes Campground where the trail begins on the hill side between sites 31 and 41.   We started on trail around 10:16am.

Mt. Sherman 2026 Trip Report

We were back to the car after a great hike up Mammoth Mountain.  We hit the road quickly with a long drive back out towards Las Vegas.  As we got back out to Bishop we began doing math and planning out our gas stops for the drive.  We wanted to do our biggest fillup in Pahrump and so we metered things out hoping to thread the needle.  We got a lunch at Subway in Bishop and then put 2 gallons in to get us over the mountains and into Nevada.  From Bishop we went back down to Big Pine and then hit Hwy 168 again.  This time we wouldn't need to do the White Mountain Rd.  After a few mountain passes and always interesting scenery we made our way down to Beatty, NV where we put in 2 more gallons to give us enough to get to Pahrump.  When we finally made Pahrump we found prices around $4.70 (which is typically still a bad price but by current standards it was the best.)   After Pahrump it got dark and we drove the rest of the way to the Red Rock Canyon Campground where things were pitch black.  It was 7:30pm.  We found our site and got the tent setup.  Neither of us were starving and so for supper we split a freeze dried.  I tried a Peak Refuel meal for the first time and we had the chicken alfredo which turned out to be fantastic.  We had a beautiful evening with very comfy temps in the upper 60s and a very calm evening to enjoy outside.  We finally pulled our chairs out for the first time all trip and enjoyed the beautiful desert evening. 

SUNDAY OCTOBER 4

We left the vestibules open overnight and it was glorious. A light breeze mirror the air moving. The temp was upper 60s. The door was clear and it was nice to peek outside and see stars through the night. From like 530 on I struggled to get back to sleep. By 6 I finally decided I might as well think Michigan time. I read in my bag for awhile and then finally got up. We had a coyote walk by about 10 yards away while I was still in tent.  We had talked of cooking breakfast in the morning, but I ended up just eating two Honey Stinger waffles.

We had a light hike objective this morning to move the legs and to spend some time before heading to the airport.  We scouted some semblance of a trail heading west from our campsite and up to a slope.  At the top of the short slope I could see on my onX backcountry maps what should be trail.  We ultimately found it, something that looked like an old jeep track.  We follow it towards a hilltop the map called Firehouse Hill.  It eventually turned into singletrack trail and we were able to follow it all the way to the top. We gained just under 500 feet from our campsite so it turned into a nice effort.  We ran into one other guy who was also out hiking.  Being desert terrain we were mindful of rattlesnakes but thankfully no close encounters to be had.  

Back to camp the sun was up and things were heating. With no shade there was no point in sticking around there. David made the suggestion of Hoover Dam and we found we had the time to make the drive over. We got bank finished and our bags packed quick as we could and hit the road by 810a. 

We got to the Hoover Dam area around 9a and we first stopped at the large parking area for the O'Callaghan/Tillman Bridge.  Here you can walk across the publich highway bridge for great views of Hoover Dam.  We did this and then decided to drive down to the Dam itselt to drive over.  All of this was free and accessible after going through the security checkpoint.  If you want to park at the Dam proper or go into the visitor center and museum there are entry fees.  As we drove over the Dam David let me out at a crosswalk so I could take some photos from the Dam.  It was startling how low the waters of Lake Mead are and many prayers for rain and snow in the mountains above are to be had.   On our drive out we stopped in at the Visitor Center for Lake Mead National Recreation Area to walk around a bit.

We now headed for the airport and made our final gas stop at a Maverik just a few blocks from the car rental return building.  We returned the car to Dollar at 1023 and then rode the shuttle in to the airport. The bag check lines were long and slow.  After bag check David hit the USO before going through security.  I made it through and then set to looking for the LEGO store I saw on my way in.  I found it was in Concourse C and walked over there to shop for something for Anya and Ben. While there I hit a food court with a Villa Pizza for some lunch.  David eventually joined me there.  With an hour to go before flights we walked out to B concourse where our two gates were.  I sat with David near his gate til our time ran out. Our flights left within 30 minutes of each other so the itineraries lined up nicely.  On my flight out we got good views of Lake Mead and the Grand Canyon.  In mid flight we also had spectacular views of Colorado and I took a great shot looking down on Mount Elbert and Twin Lakes.  I watched the movie Tenet during my flight.