Whitney Portal Campground

Phil Anderson

Very beautiful campground, high up in the eastern Sierras. This area can get quite crowded in summer, so be forewarned and plan ahead if visiting.

Jason Bradish

My friend and I stayed at the walk-in campground on 9/9/22. Beautiful campground, don't get me wrong, BUT.... here's the issue. At about 11:30pm my friend and I had just finished a late dinner that we cooked over the campfire. Afterwards, as we were getting ready to put everything into the bear proof bin, a black bear comes strolling in and was about 6 feet from us, climbs onto the picnic table and begins eating our leftover food. This bear was NOT afraid of people at all. We yelled at the top of our lungs to try and chase the bear away... that did nothing. So we call 911 asking for assistance because this bear wasn't leaving. 911 dispatched an Inyo County Deputy, which took about an hour to get to our location. Not a big deal, to an extent, because we were roughly 20-30 minutes from town, and depending on where the deputy was, we understood. So in the meantime, we back away slowly, still yelling hoping the bear would leave, and we made our way down to the family campground where the camp host is located. What does the camp host do when we tell her that there is a bear at our campsite and it won't leave? She just laughs and says, "Yeah, that bears been going into campsites looking for food. He should be gone now". We were also told that the bear has been known to get into tents, too, looking for food. What in the actual fu#%? So this is known by the people who work/volunteer there, and nothing is being done about it? Seems kind of dangerous to me. What if someone gets attacked? What if some kid gets scared and runs and the bear chases him? What if some kid, not knowing the danger of a wild bear, goes and tries to pet the thing? What if someone's dog tries going after the bear and gets hurt, or hurts the bear? There are so many scenario's to this situation that could turn out bad. Why isn't the park relocating the bear away from campgrounds? Is it going to take someone getting hurt or killed before something is done? That bear clearly isn't afraid of people, so someone will eventually get hurt. It's just a matter of time. And, to my knowledge, aren't bear proof bins supposed to be located away from the campsite, not directly next to the campsite? I could be wrong, but it seems pretty idiotic to store food 5 feet from a tent where bears are known to go.

Azia Branson

Such an incredible spot, hiking whitney or not! We stayed early September and the bees were out of control when cooking so just be aware of that!

Denisa Csillik

The CLEANEST and most organized campground I've ever been to ❤️