High Sierra Trail: 7-Day Itinerary + Permit & Whitney Exit Logistics
The High Sierra Trail does something the John Muir Trail doesn’t: it crosses the range west to east in one continuous line, from the giant sequoias of Crescent Meadow to the summit of Mount Whitney. It’s shorter than the JMT, has weaker permit competition, and ends at the highest point in the contiguous United States. The tradeoff is logistics: you finish 70-some miles from where you started, on the opposite side of the range.
The National Park Service describes the core trail as 49 miles from Crescent Meadow to the John Muir Trail junction near Wallace Creek, plus roughly 13 more miles from there to the Whitney summit, then a further descent to the Whitney Portal trailhead that brings the full one-way hike to around 71–72 miles total (NPS). Ridgefold’s own route measurement, taken from partial OpenStreetMap geometry, comes to 72 miles with about 10,000 feet of gain. Independent trip reports and guidebooks more commonly put the total elevation gain in the 15,000 to 16,000 foot range (multiple trail-report sources), so treat Ridgefold’s gain figure as a partial-data lower bound rather than the final word on how much climbing this trail actually involves.
Quick facts
| Distance | ~71–72 mi, Crescent Meadow to Whitney Portal |
| Days | 6–8 typical, this itinerary uses 7 |
| Elevation gain | ~10,000 ft measured by Ridgefold (partial data); independent sources report 15,000–16,000 ft |
| High point | 14,505 ft (Mount Whitney summit, per USGS) |
| Direction | West to east (Crescent Meadow to Whitney Portal) |
| Permit | Sequoia wilderness permit, quota-controlled in season |
| Shuttle needed | Yes, the trailhead and exit are on opposite sides of the range |
The 7-day itinerary
| Day | Route | Miles | Climb | Camp | Water | Permit note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Crescent Meadow → Bearpaw Meadow | ~11.5 mi | ~2,000 ft | Bearpaw Meadow | Seasonal creeks | Permit needed from Seven Mile Hill onward |
| 2 | Bearpaw Meadow → Big Arroyo | ~13 mi | ~3,500 ft | Big Arroyo | Hamilton Creek, Big Arroyo | Crosses Kaweah Gap (10,700 ft) |
| 3 | Big Arroyo → Moraine Lake area | ~9 mi | ~1,000 ft | Moraine Lake | Moraine Lake, creeks | — |
| 4 | Moraine Lake → Junction Meadow | ~10 mi | ~1,000 ft | Junction Meadow | Kern River | — |
| 5 | Junction Meadow → Crabtree Meadow | ~10 mi | ~2,000 ft | Crabtree Meadow | Whitney Creek | Wag bags required from here to Whitney Portal |
| 6 | Crabtree Meadow → Guitar Lake | ~4 mi | ~1,600 ft | Guitar Lake | Guitar Lake | Short day to stage for the summit push |
| 7 | Guitar Lake → Whitney summit → Whitney Portal | ~15 mi | ~2,700 ft (net descent) | Trailhead (exit) | Trail Camp | Long summit day; start before dawn |
Day 7 is the outlier: a 15-mile day that climbs to 14,505 feet before dropping almost 6,000 feet to the trailhead. Most groups start in the dark to reach the summit before afternoon thunderstorms build, which is standard practice on Whitney regardless of which trail brought you there.
How the permit works
For the general mechanics of lotteries, quotas, and walk-up permits, see backpacking permits explained. The High Sierra Trail permit is a Sequoia and Kings Canyon wilderness permit, booked the same way as Rae Lakes Loop or any other SEKI trailhead: a rolling reservation on Recreation.gov, with each day’s quota releasing 6 months ahead at 7:00am Pacific during the May 22–September 26, 2026 quota season (NPS).
One detail specific to this trail: a High Sierra Trail permit is required between Seven Mile Hill and Kaweah Gap, which is the stretch just past Crescent Meadow (NPS). Pick it up at the Lodgepole Visitor Center, open 7am to 3:30pm, with early pickup available from 1pm the day before.
The fees match the rest of SEKI’s system: $15 non-refundable reservation fee, $5 per person, refundable outside the one-week cancellation window (NPS). Because the trail is less famous than the JMT and doesn’t share its exact permit pool, mid-week High Sierra Trail dates in June and September are noticeably easier to get than a July or August weekend.
The Whitney exit
This is the part that trips people up. You start in Sequoia National Park’s west side and finish at Whitney Portal, above Lone Pine on the east side, a 4+ hour drive around the range by car. A few ways people handle it:
Two-car shuttle. Leave one car at Whitney Portal (or in Lone Pine, since Whitney Portal parking fills), drive the other to Crescent Meadow, and drive the shuttle car back for everyone at the end. This needs two vehicles and someone willing to do the long drive.
Hired shuttle. Small local operators around Lone Pine and Whitney Portal run on-demand rides between the two, though which operators are currently active changes from year to year. Search for a current Whitney Portal or Lone Pine hiker shuttle before your trip rather than relying on any specific name or quoted price you find online, since these are small operations that come and go.
Long-term parking in Lone Pine. If you don’t want to leave a car at the trailhead for a week, some Lone Pine businesses offer paid weekly parking, generally reservation-based. Whitney Portal itself also has parking, but it can fill, especially with day-hikers headed up the standard Whitney Trail.
Whichever you choose, sort it out before you apply for the permit. Your entry date and your exit-side transportation need to line up, and Whitney Portal parking and local shuttles get tighter in peak summer.
Best time to go
July through September is the standard window. Kaweah Gap can hold snow into July in a heavy year, and the Whitney summit stretch is exposed to afternoon lightning, so an early morning summit push matters regardless of month.
Frequently asked questions
Can I hike the High Sierra Trail without summiting Whitney?
Yes. You can descend via the Whitney Trail’s switchbacks without tagging the summit, which shortens Day 7 and removes the highest, most exposed section. Most people who’ve come this far do the extra push, but it’s not required.
Do I need a separate Whitney Zone permit?
No. The High Sierra Trail’s Sequoia wilderness permit covers your exit over Whitney and down to Whitney Portal; you don’t need the separate Mount Whitney Zone permit that day-hikers and Whitney Trail-only backpackers use, since you’re not entering through that trailhead.
How fit do I need to be for this trip?
You should be comfortable with back-to-back multi-thousand-foot climbing days and a 15-mile summit day at altitude. It’s a harder trip than Rae Lakes Loop or most 3-to-4-day Sierra loops; prior multi-day backpacking experience helps.
Is the High Sierra Trail less crowded than the JMT?
Generally yes. It shares the last stretch with JMT hikers near Wallace Creek and on the Whitney approach, but the west-side sections through Bearpaw Meadow and Kaweah Gap see meaningfully less traffic than the JMT corridor through Yosemite and the central Sierra.
Ridgefold has the High Sierra Trail pre-loaded with the real route and elevation profile, so you can move camps around to match your permit dates and see exactly how each day’s climb changes. Check the full trail page for the elevation chart and difficulty rating first, or use the hiking time calculator to sanity-check the long summit day.