Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Travel from Whitney Portal to Fresno

Anyone have any ideas of how to get from Whitney Portal to Fresno that won't break the bank? A friend and I are hiking the JMT in Aug and Sept.

Thanks,
Rachel

Rachel, welcome to WhitneyZone!

Fresno may be the most difficult place to use for a JMT hike.

There is the Yosemite YARTS that runs out of Merced, CA to Yosemite. And Amtrak runs through Merced (Fresno, too).

But look into the Eastern Sierra Transit Authority. They run the Hwy 395 from Reno, NV, through Lee Vining (with YARTS connections to Yosemite), Mammoth, Lone Pine (you can hitch to/from Whitney Portal), and Lancaster, CA.

From Lancaster, there are connections to LA.

So, you have options. Unfortunately, Fresno is not the best starting/ending city. If you use YARTS, check their schedule -- it may start to cut back in September.

Please keep us posted what works best for you, because others often ask similar questions.

Perhaps a better entry/exit location would be the Mammoth/Yosemite airport. United Airlines runs daily flights between LA and MMTH, and Alaska Airlines has daily flights to and from San Francisco to MMTH. From Mammoth you have YARTS to Yosemite and ESTA from Lone Pine to Mammoth. All of this depends on the schedules, of course.

This local shuttle might get you from Whitney Portal to Lone Pine, if you don't want to hitch: http://www.highsierrashuttle.com/

By offering the above alternatives, I am assuming you are flying from Vermont.

Getting from Lone Pine to Fresno would be quite awkward, as Steve has pointed out.