Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Taboose vs Sawmill vs Baxter

The hike to Taboose Pass is on a good trail that is maintained periodically and easy to follow. The trails to Baxter and Sawmill are trail hikes (Class 1), but not overly engineered like the trails that get a lot of traffic; so there are sections that are not as easy to follow. At the same time, you won't be dealing with miles of engineered stairs; so fairly nice trails. The problem with all of those trails is the high temperatures you will have to deal with until you get up to higher elevations.

It is not unusual for it to be 100+ degrees at those trailheads in the summer. Start before dawn on a hot day and plan on coming out late in the day if you are coming down them. I got back to the Sawmill Pass Trailhead at about 11 pm one night a couple summers ago and it was still 88 degrees (I came out that night instead of waiting for the morning because the lower part of the trail is in the sun in the morning and I wanted to avoid that).

There are places where both the Baxter and Sawmill Passes fade away on the west side of the passes until you hit the junction with the JMT. The Taboose Pass Trail is easy to follow all the way to th JMT.

Taboose is a good one to go up, but not so much fun going down. Sawmill is nicer coming down than going up. Baxter is about the same either way.

Also, Taboose is by far the easiest one (not easy though) to get over in a day - it's only around 8 miles from the trailhead to the pass.