So here is my idea. Land in Vegas Sunday at 11am. Drive to whitney portal that day and see the beautiful views along the way. Camp out at whitney portal till Tuesday ( I already reserved the campsite so I can't do the other camping suggestion). Start hiking whitney on Tuesday, summit on Wednesday, leave trail on Thursday. I will sleep at whitney portal Thursday night. Wake up Friday and I have the whole day to kill before going to Vegas and catching my 11:55 PM flight back home. Any suggestions for a mini adventure on Friday? Any cool vineyards in the area?
At the risk of throwing too many choices at you... Akichow mentioned this, "
Or do the nice loop hike through the Ancient Bristlecone Forest." That got me thinking... You could skip Death Valley before Whitney (see it afterward). You could drive from Vegas to the White Mountains, (
route map) and spend the night at the Grand View campground. (If it is full, just drive the few miles more to the Schulman Grove and sleep by the car in the parking lot). In the morning, walk around and see the unique Bristlecone Pine forest at Schulman Grove -- you're in a dry climate at 10,000 ft elevation, among the oldest trees in the world. (
Google images) (No water there, so be sure to bring it along). Then, you could drive down to the Owens Valley, even up the other side to Onion Valley, hike up to Gilbert Lake and sit on this outstanding flat slab of granite (about 1.5 miles up the trail, 1000' of gain) (
map):
Then get to Whitney Portal for night #2. I can give more details if you're interested in trying this.
By the way, you wrote, "
Any cool vineyards in the area?"
Sorry, you're waaay far from vinyards. They are nearly all within 50 miles of the Pacific Coast. You'll have to settle for the beer in Panamint Springs, on your way back through Death Valley.
If you need a shower on any part of this trip, the Whitney Portal Hostel in Lone Pine has nice ones for $5. Or spend the night there after your hike in a shared room for $20.
