Best Equestrian Camping near Lone Pine, CA

Breathtaking views! Spacious first come first serve sites. Arrived shortly after noon and was able to snatch the last two sites available. Will definitely be back(earlier in the day) restrooms are vault toilets, very clean with disinfectant foam available. Beautiful Mount Whitney in the background. Right in the middle of many trails and sites to see, not to mention a quick skip away from Lone Pine.

For just $8 a night you can enjoy the Eastern Sierras with plenty of room to spare between you and your camping neighbors. This place is a favorite for us, with fishing, snow capped mountains, and the cutest little kangaroo mice I have ever seen! It’s a fun get away and recommended for friends and family. No service here, no store or place to buy firewood at the campground but you’re a stones throw away from Lone Pine a Western town nearby for fishing, food and any other camping needs. Restrooms are available here and are kept clean, just bring a flashlight at night as it is pitch black. In the Summer this place can get pretty toasty and the sun is incredibly strong, I’d recommend taking a canopy with your camping supplies, with little to no trees for shade in this area.

Nice, out of the way campsite. 81 sites on Tuttle Creek. Clean restrooms. No showers or drinking water. Near Lone Pine, just off Whitney Portal Road, adjacent to Alabama Hills, so lots of exploring opportunities! Great dark skies for stargazing and photography.

Amazing First Come First Serve campground. Amzing views of the Eastern Sierras including Lone Pine Peak. Town is a 10min drive in case you forgot something at home. Half the campground is closed in the winter, but we never had a problem finding a site.

this is a great campground to use as a base camp before you summit Whitney. The staff is friendly and helpful and the portal is just a few minutes away with the store and small restaurant. Lone Pine is close about a 10 minute drive away.

Great campground first come first serve and cheep. Awesome views of Mt. Whitney. Close to Alabama Hills and Mt. Whitney, Lone Pine is a cute little town as well. Pit toilets available and water available seasonally, RV dump station for extra $, and there are dumpster. Easy access with any kind of vehicle.

This campground is well maintained, there's a store that sells everything you could want, including alcohol. The high elevation makes it a great place to spend the night before hiking Mt. Whitney to get acclimated. There's a waterfall only a couple hundred meters from the sites. Even if you don't have Whitney permits, the hike up to Lone Pine Lake is stunning, just be prepared for snow well into June!

Tuttle Creek is a BLM campground. Open all year, no reservations taken. Has pit toilets, water, fire rings, tables in each site. $8 a night. $4 if you have a pass. The first night visited was very windy, but you take your chances. Great views of the Eastern Sierra, they got there first dusting of snow for the season. Close to Alabama Hills Recreation Area. Lone Pine is a neat little town with plenty of things to see.

This is a great place to stay a couple of nights if your looking to acclimate a bit before going Mt. Whitney. It's also just a beautiful campground in general. There are hiking trails from the campground itself, a gorgeous river flowing through it and the camp sites are spacious. It is a short drive from the Whitney Portal Store which has the biggest pancakes I've ever seen and if you go the other way, you can easily get to the Alabama Hills or the cute town of Lone Pine. The sites are shaded and there are pit toilets. It's a terrific campground for families or people just looking to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city!

The Whitney Zone has an other-worldly feel to it. You can start your adventures to this unique place in the High Sierras by camping at the end of the road, just before the trailhead. The elevation is high enough to make it substantially cooler than Lone Pine, and it also has plenty of shade. The drastic climate difference here should acclimate you for even colder weather and altitude, if you're hiking up into the Whitney Zone!

There are plenty of bearboxes, sufficient pit toilets, and it tends to be quiet. Most people who stay here use it as a launch pad to hike into the backcountry early in the day. So, in my experience, you won't run into boisterous parties, and the campground is fairly spread out.

Just a reminder to obtain permits before you head into the Whitney Portal!

We recently backpacked to the summit of MT Whitney. On the way to the summit there are several options for overnight camping. Lone Pine Lake is your first option, about 2.8 miles from the trailhead at Whitney Portal. This is a beautiful little lake, surrounded by pines and imposing granite walls. This is the last place you can camp without a Whitney zone overnight permit. Outpost camp is your next option at mile 3.8. Flat and shady with meandering streams and a waterfall, this is a beautiful place to stop for the night. Trail Camp is located at mile 6.3. Surrounded by tall, jagged granite peaks, and edged by a beautiful alpine lake, Trail Camp is awe inspiring. Trail Camp is about 12,000 ft elevation, so be prepared to camp at high altitude. If you can swing it, taking your time to ascend slowly, and camping along the way for at least a couple of nights will make your MT Whitney experience truly unforgettable.

Great for tent camping, but no pull-in or flat spots if you're sleeping in your vehicle. I slept in the equestrian campground since those were back-in sites, but if there are horses you're not allowed to do that. The hike to the base of Langley was great though!

Campground Review:

This campground lies about 10 miles to the west of its namesake town, Lone Pine in the Owens Valley to the east of the Sierra Nevada range.  It is a very popular campground to use as a base camp for climbing Mt. Whitney especially if the Whitney Portal CG is full. which was the case when we were there.  If you can't get a reservation or walk in site at Lone Pine CG, then Tuttle Creek, and the Alabama Hills would be your closest places to camp if you're not planning on climbing Mt. Whitney.

Now on to the actual campground!  Now since this is a few miles from the actual trail head to Mt. Whitney it has more RV camping sites than tent sites.  Campsite range in price from $25-$65 for single tent sites, RV sites, and 1 group site, respectively.  Each campground has a large bear proof box to store all of your food and  smelly items in addition to a picnic table and a metal fire ring.  The campground had potable water spigots and vault toilets spread throughout.  You could also purchase firewood from the camp host, which is recommended due to the possibility of spreading pests.

To list all of the activities you can do in this area would take a book so I'm just gonna touch on some of the things we did!  Our main goal for the trip was to try and summit Mt. Whitney by the Mountaineers Route.  We got pushed back however due to hard route finding and soft avalanche prone snow.  We ended going around 10 miles but the regular hiking trail is 13 miles one way!  After getting beaten down by the mountain we were able to eat some great food at the Mt. Whitney Restaurant which had Americana and diner food. 

Since we stayed at this campground in the middle of June the temperatures weren't too hot but I would really try to camp higher up at the portal if you plan on coming here in July or August as it could be really hot and there wasn't a ton of shade.  Also be doubly sure to book your campground ahead of time as I doubt there will be any sites if you show up after 3 or 4 without a reservation.

Product Review:

Being a Ranger for the Dyrt allows us to test and review gear from time to time!  This time we were testing out the Adjustable Neck Gaiter from Eclipse sun protection.  This was honestly one of my favorite pieces of gear I've been able to test for the Dyrt!  

Pros: 

• Simple design that replaces $100's of sunscreen in it's lifetime! (never washes out)
• Is multi functional and can be used as a gaiter, headband, buff, and so much more!
• Super lightweight and doesn't need to be reapplied or leave you greasy
• It is super cheap and includes a Velcro strap to adjust to smaller neck      

Cons:

• The only flaw I could find was the sewing along the neck was a little weak and I ripped it slightly before realizing I needed to be a little more delicate pulling it on

Other than that one con I would say this is an amazing product that helps keep you from spending 100's on a temporary sunblock and helps keep all those nasty chemicals out of nature, the waterways, and the oceans!  I definitely think we'll be trying out the sleeves for fishing as my fiances arms can get pretty burnt sometimes.

We didn't camp here, rather we used this as the start/finish point for our 2-day hike to the summit of Mt. Langley. It was a convenient place to park, because you drive right up to the trailhead, and there are trash cans, bear boxes, and vault toilets. We stashed some extra toiletries in the bear boxes, rather than risk leaving them in the car. Toilets were pretty clean. Unfortunately, the potable water spigots were already turned off. The national forest website said they are off in the winter, but I didn't expect that already in early September. This is an equestrian campground, so there was some horse dung on the trails around the campground.

We are working out way north through CA and Horse Creek was in a convenient spot. Site very clean and well managed and overall its a pretty spot. Only 2-3 large and dispersed bath rooms. A number of large groups around the site which looks fun but it felt more like an urban park than being in nature.

Beautiful and perfect set up campsite. Regular bathrooms, Food bag hook and one fire pit. It's first come first serve.

Absolutely beautiful and cute campground. Regular bathroom, food hook, and fire pit. First come first serve.

Arrived late on a Thursday night and there was plenty of sites still available. We enjoyed our night, there was a breeze, plenty of space in the site. In the morning we could only see two others in the campground. There were beautiful views. For the price ($8.00) you can't beat this place and the entry road is paved. No shade, showers or water but the vault bathrooms were really clean and had plenty of paper.

For only $8 you get picnic table, fire pit, vault toilet, and access to water and waste dumping. And view of Eastern Sierra that has been seen in movies such as Iron Man. I almost want to keep this a secret...