71 Miles High Sierra Trail to Mt. Whitney

September 18-27, 2021

7 days/6 Nights on the High Sierra Trail

$1,195 per person

$1,295 with gear rental

Your registration includes a 71-mile, 7-day, 6-night wilderness backpacking adventure, training meeting before the trip, a food-kit with all meals on the trail, and devotionals every morning and evening. You’ll experience spectacular High Sierra lakes, streams, canyons, a natural hot spring, culminating with the summit of the highest mountain in the continental US, Mount Whitney at 14,508 ft. This is an EPIC trip and you will make the memories of a lifetime! 

Airfare and ground transportation not included but we can help arrange car rentals and carpooling.

This hike is rated Strenuous

We reserve the right to adjust the itinerary based on permit availability, group dynamics and safety.

Sept 18               Fly into San Francisco. Stay overnight at a Sequoia Lodge

Sept 19               9 Mile Creek                    9 miles

Sept 20               Precipice Lake                 8 miles

Sept 21               Moraine Lake                  11 miles

Sept 22               Kern Hot Springs             8 miles

Sept 23               Junction Meadow           8 miles

Sept 24               Guitar Lake                       11 miles

Sept 25               Whitney Portal                16 miles

Sept 25               Stay overnight in Lone Pine, CA. Enjoy dinner that evening and breakfast in the AM.

Sept 26               We’ll drive 7 hours back to San Francisco, enjoy dinner and stay overnight.

Sept 27               Depart San Francisco and fly back home with memories of a lifetime!

Trail Description:

Day 1: Our pilgrimage begins at Crescent Meadow in the Giant Forest, where we’ll hike among some of the largest trees on the planet.  We’ll hike along the gorge of the Great Western Divide with incredible views, finally staying overnight at 9 Mile Creek.

Day 2: We’ll continue eastward by Hamilton Lakes where we’ll stop for lunch. Then it’s up, up, and away to the Great Western Divide! We’ll camp at Precipice Lake perched on a ledge at 10,400 feet!

Day 3: We cross the Great Western Divide at Kaweah Gap 10,700 feet, then descend into the beautiful Big Arroyo Canyon. After lunch, we’ll continue on to Moraine Lake, a beautiful alpine lake at around 8,000 feet where we’ll camp overnight. 

Day 4: We descend into the mighty Kern River Canyon, an incredible gorge with vertical walls between 2,000 and 5,000 feet high!  The natural hot springs there make for a perfect campsite and make a tired body feel new again. 

Day 5: We’ll join the John Muir and Pacific Crest Trails at Junction Meadow where we’ll camp overnight.

Day 6: We’ll hike up and out of the Kern River Canyon, following Wallace Creek to Guitar Lake, our last camping area before our summit bid of Mount Whitney! 

Day 8: At about 5:00 AM, we’ll begin our summit of Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the continental US at 14,491 feet!  After lots of photos, we’ll begin a long descent off the mountain on 111 switchbacks!  Our day will culminate at the Whitney Portal where cheeseburgers and beer await us.  Then we’ll stay overnight at a motel in Lone Pine, CA.  

Day 9: The next morning we’ll drive 11 hours back to San Francisco where we’ll enjoy a fine dinner to celebrate our adventure together. 

Day 10: We fly back to our homes and families with more pictures and stories than you can imagine! And with friendships and memories that can only be forged over a week in the wilderness together.

*Your registration does NOT include airfare, ground transportation/shuttle, or lodging in Sequoia or San Francisco.