Pulled into the parking lot at 7:45 and grabbed one of the last few spots. By 8am parking lot was full with cars pulling in every few seconds looking for spots. If the parking lot is full  there are some spots along the road. Started out at 8:07am and by 9am it was hot! Wished we would have gotten a little earlier of a start (6:30 / 7am) to avoid some of the hot morning sun. Very little shade. The trail is not well marked and we ended up taking about a mile detour (round trip) out of our way before checking the All Trails map. There is a fork in the path: if you go right it takes you down to Strawberry Meadow. You'll want to keep left and go up. We didn't use hiking poles but there is some small scramble on loose sand where hiking poles would have been nice to have. Not overly crowded for a Saturday but definitely didn't feel alone – could always see of hear someone at all times. The first 3/4 of the hike is fairly easy with little elevation gain. The last 1/4 is basically all steep. A few false peaks before you get to the top. The trail marker is faded so you may want to bring your own sign or some red paint to repaint the “Strawberry Peak.” Overall a really nice starter hike for Mt Whitney training.