The five days we were in the Portal area last July was the worst parking situation I've run across there yet. It was an adventure finding a spot every time. The roadside parking was packed all the way from the overflow lot PAST the switchback. Doug seemed to think that the excessive traffic was attributable to the interest in hiking in general and the PCT in particular generated by the movie "Wild". Hopefully all the publicity about the Portal road work will have the same but opposite effect this year, but I have my doubts. If the upper stage work coincides with the high-volume summer months, as appears likely, this could be an epic CF.
I've depended on snagging mid-week walk-in permits the past few years, but that may not be the case this year. This will bear watching closely in June, but we have to lock our travel plans down well before then. Usually we stay a week up north around Yosemite then another week south in Lone Pine and on Whitney. We'll likely plan to spend both weeks up north this July. It's hard to imagine a Sierra trip that doesn't put boots on Whitney, but this seems to be the year that could happen.
