If you click on the image to enlarge it, the road to Whitney Portal becomes much more prominent as the scar across the hillside to the right side of the image. Whitney Portal is one of the access points for climbers heading up Mt Whitney is the highest mountain in the lower 48 with an elevation of 14,505 ft (4421 m). It is in California just to the west of Death Valley National Park and less than 100 miles from the lowest point in North America.

According to some historians, the Pi Ute [Paiute] Indians called Mt. Whitney Too-man-i-goo-yah, which means ‘the very old man.’