One of the crown jewels of California, Yosemite National Park boasts spectacular granite peaks, iconic waterfalls, giant sequoia trees, verdant meadows and pristine rivers and streams.
Created in 1890, it’s one of our oldest national parks, and with nearly 4 million visitors flocking there each year, it’s also one of our busiest. Heavily trafficked roads and viewpoints mean you’ll need to go deeper to really experience what John Muir called “the grandest of all the special temples of Nature I was ever permitted to enter.”
How to get away from the crowds: Activities like camping, day hiking, backpacking and bicycling all await you here; and of course, Yosemite is also a world-class rock climbing destination.
To help you sort through your options for exploring, we asked Jordan Franco, a sales manager at the REI Fresno, Calif., store, to share a few of his favorites. REI Adventures Yosemite Guide Tyler Gates and REI Adventures Yosemite Programs Director Chris Rickert also shared some of their secrets for this article.
Camping in Yosemite
The park has 13 car-accessible campgrounds, offering more than 1,400 total campsites. Seven of the campgrounds offer reservable spaces and seven campgrounds offer sites on a first-come, first-served basis. Tuolumne Meadows, the biggest campground, sets aside half of its 304 sites for reservations and the other half of its sites for first-come, first-served campers.
Reservations: Campgrounds requiring reservations are usually full from around April through September. The park’s campground reservations page provides details about how to maximize your chances of getting one.
You can reserve campgrounds by using the national recreation.gov website or by calling 877-444-6777. Note that some reservable campgrounds are available on a first-come, first-served basis outside of peak camping season.
Campgrounds in Yosemite Valley are jam-packed all summer and reservations are difficult to get. Below are a few alternatives that offer a quieter camping experience.
Crane Flat Campground (166 sites, reservation-only): Located about 30 minutes northwest of Yosemite Valley on Big Oak Flat Road (Highway 120), Crane Flat campground is away from the hustle and bustle of the main valley. Surrounded by trees and meadows, you are within a 5-minute drive of the Tuolumne Grove trailhead. Here you can meander for a mile or more through a stand of giant sequoias, one of the few sequoia groves in the park.
Wawona Campground (93 sites, reservation-only during peak season): Located more than 25 miles south of Yosemite Valley on Wawona Road (Highway 41), Wawona campground also offers a less hectic camping experience than campgrounds in the main valley. On the bank of the South Fork of the Merced River, you are within a short drive of the Mariposa Grove’s giant sequoias (though that area is closed for restoration until the spring of 2017). You are also close to the trailhead for the Chilnualna Falls day hike and Buena Vista Lakes backpack, both described in the hiking and backpacking section below.
White Wolf Campground (166 sites, first-come, first-served): Located Off the Tioga Road (Highway 120) about one hour north of Yosemite Valley, White Wolf campground is higher than the main valley and nestled in a pine forest. A backpackers-only campground here lets wilderness permit holders spend the night before a trip: highly recommended if you’re doing the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne backpacking trip, described below.
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