Yosemite trip

[Shadow Catcher]

I am looking to make reservations for Yosemite and from what I understand for June that has to happen 7AM PST February 15th, the question is which camp ground should I shoot for.

[nevadatear]

depends on what you are looking for. The campgrounds in the valley are the hardest to get. They are also the most crowded, as in severely crowded at all time. But if you want to be right in the valley, that is the place to be (like housekeeping camp and curry village). We stayed at Touolome meadows last year and it was fine. We have also stayed at Crane flat and White wolf, which are about 1 hour from the valley floor. Check out each of the campground on the website, they will tell you how far they are from the valley. There is a shuttle that runs around the Toulome meadows area so you can keep your car parked and still hike and sight see there. Yosemite is so huge there is so much to see other than the valley. We only spent one day in the valley itself, the rest in surrounding areas. Although this is a national park, the bathrooms are not the best and the sites are often small. We are not putting much of our federal money into national park campgrounds. The showers are all down in the valley at housekeeping campt and curry village, which are run by consessioneers.

[Wolfgang92025]

the question is which camp ground should I shoot for.

My personal choices would be Upper or North Pines. The weekends are very busy, meaning lots of people and traffic. It is best if you can pal your trip around the middle of the week if possible. Most camp spot do not have a lot of privacy. North Pines is a little more away from things and a little more secluded.

This was taken next the the river looking into north pines campground.



Depending on how much time you plan on spending in the area, away from the valley it's not nearly as busy.

Also, you need to try right when the lines open up in order to get good pickings.

Enjoy your trip..... and take lots of pictures

Couple more to wet your appetite.....

[john]

Advise. Prep multiple pages with your reservation info. I got lucky with four.

All the sites were available; reservations were not being taken yet. I had opened 4 windows, each representing a site I found attractive in the valley. All I had to do on each window was hit reserve .

The clock ticked down as I repeatedly hit the reserve button on the window of my first choice. Each time the reply was "reservations are not accepted at this time." I knew reservations were not being taken yet, but I was playing it safe as my clock may not be in sync with theirs. I continued tapping reserve until I got a different but surprising page that said, "This site has already been reserved". Mind you, the clock for reservations could not have ticked more than two seconds since opening and I have DSL! So I closed the first window and hit reserve on the second window. It came back "This site has already been reserved" and I got the same thing from the third window. Arrggg! I was down to the last window that was already prepped with my reservation dates. I hit the reserve button and got back a page that said "you have reserved this site"!

I found Upper Pines the nicest and the last loop in particular my favorite. It may have been a tenting loop, though. The loop next to it was nice as well. When we were doing our research we found a site unrelated to Yosemite that provided pics of each site in the park.

One thing to remember is that Yosemite is not like other campgrounds. Very little time will be spent hanging around the site during the day; it takes the whole day to squeeze in two or three "events". I doubt we ever hit three events in a day unless one counts going to the store. (Food prices were fair with the exception of bread) I was there nearly a week and left having missed out on a lot. What I am saying is that the individual site does not matter because at Yosemite, the whole of Yosemite is the site.

More info and pics at the following link. Scroll down to 6/28/09 http://polifrogblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/summer-trip-2009.html

[Wolfgang92025]

We stayed at Touolome meadows last year and it was fine. We have also stayed at Crane flat and White wolf, which are about 1 hour from the valley floor.

One thing to keep in mind, These campgrounds are on Tioga pass road. Right now it is closed for the winter due to snow.
Check the Yosemite National Park website for info relating when it might be open again. Depending on snowfall, it can be end of April or end of June.

Wolfgang

[Shadow Catcher]

I worked at Saddle Bag Lake (top of Tioga pass) back in the 60's and the lake did not break up till the middle of July that year so I am well aware of the constraints
Based on recommendations, thank you all, I will try for Upper Pine the minute the reservation process opens up.

[halfdome, Danny]

Here's a handy website that shows a picture of all of Yosemite's camp sites. Danny

[Shadow Catcher]

Some one knows something I don't
With in a couple of seconds of the opening time for reservations all of the sites were gone. I did find a site in Hodgdon Meadow Campground. Oh well.
If Tioga pass is open we will see if Saddlebag lake is open to camp on the way back east, in the meant time we will use the camp site as a base and explore Yosemite.

[john]

Man, sorry.

Did you have multiple pages open with all the required info entered on each with each page needing only to be submitted?

I will add that during my stay we saw very few non California tags. There were too many Cali tags for proximity to account for the high percentage of Cali to non Cali tags. It was just odd and stood in contrast to our experiences in all the other national parks we visited which more reflected the United States than the park's home state in terms of car tags.

However, you did get a spot and, trust me, it does not matter where you stay when visiting Yosemite.

[Shadow Catcher]

Yep multiple pages open. Hit reserve, not available and NO other openings in any other sites in either of the camp grounds suggested, all with in seconds.

[john]

Out of my campsite picks I got my last choice. It was disappointing at the time but once in Yosemite I realized it did not matter. You will too.

I try to visit the various campgrounds in a park so that if I return I know my preferences. Though I didn't stay there, Hodgdon is one of those preferences if I ever get a chance to return to Yosemite. It is a nicer campground than those on the valley.

[Shadow Catcher]

The latest is that our site seems to have moved over (reservations service ? mess up) to the Diamond O camp ground, which may be a good thing actually as it is next to the Tuolumne River and the camp sites are bigger more isolated it is also close to Hetch Hetchy, I may reconsider bringing one of the canoes.

[wired]

I just this week got reservations for mid June in North Pines Campground- right across the road from the river. Will be going Mon thru Fri so we will miss the weekend. We like to stay in the Valley so that everything is close and we are right in the park.
I had both my wife's and my laptop logged in under separate accounts and ready to go so that at 7AM on the dot we hit the "ENTER" button. Got one site out of two tries. Can't wait to be going back. It's been awhile since we have been to Yosemite and it will be our first trip in the new TD.

[mcspin50]

Hi wired,
You got a new teardrop trailer?! I'd love to see some pictures.

[wired]

Hi wired,
You got a new teardrop trailer?! I'd love to see some pictures.

Well technically I do not have it yet. Will take delivery at the end of March. Unfortunately I have neither the place, time, or tools to build it myself, so I have ordered it built to custom spec. from Michael Knox in TN. It is looking beautiful and I can't wait for delivery as it has been a long time a'comin!
I will post pics as soon as I am able.