Saturday 21st April

Luck was with us Saturday as the Mount Whitney Trailhead or as most people call it, the Whitney Portal was open earlier in the year than usual. Driving up the winding roads of the mountain provided spectacular panoramic views of the granite walls and the surrounding Sierra Nevada Mountains and as it was off peak season gave us a sense of really being and getting deeper into the wilderness with fewer and fewer people around. Solitary log cabins could be seen perched almost on cliff faces here and there, begging the question of how they were built and how they will be deconstructed if the land is sold and why people would want to stay so far out of the way of civilisation. Once we reached the Portal I could see instantly the appeal of the surroundings and the isolation to be found staying there, opposed to cities. We had only seen Las Vegas as far as American cities go which is far from typical, but even so in comparison Mount Whitney was paradise. A sanctuary to get away from the hustle and bustle of American life, a place where you can escape to be alone and enjoy nature, something which is becoming harder and harder to do within towns as development encroaches on parks and the natural environment. I found that the mountain gave welcome relief to desert heat of the Alabama Hills where we had previously been, with the most incredible waterfall whose sides were covered in snow and ice, another contributing factor for why you might choose to vacation here.