The Peeking Goat's Club® (our nickname for our backpacking group) convinced me to do Mount Whitney 

(having done it twice, once successfully, the other turning back a mile from the summit) as they had acquired a camp site near the top.

So, we drove Friday evening all the way to Alabama Hills, camped overnight, and started at Whitney Portal the next day. 

Since we didn't have to do the the ~20 mile up and down the mountain in one day, we didn't have to get up so early, and instead started off ~10am from the portal.

Since it was daylight, it was a very pretty first day's hike: we went through woods, marshlands, and rocky terrain on the way to get above tree line.

We finally got to the campsite, and stayed overnight:

Climbing Mount Whitney in Two Days, from Whitney Portal