Yosemite, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks (Fodor's) - Fodor's [17]
Because of Yosemite National Park’s immense popularity—not just with tourists from around the world but with Northern Californians who make weekend trips here—reservations are all but mandatory.
Delaware North Companies Parks and Resorts
(6771 N. Palm Ave., Fresno, CA 93704 | 559/252–4848 | www.yosemitepark.com), which handles most in-park reservations, takes reservations beginning one year plus one day in advance of your proposed stay. Or, you can roll the dice by showing up at the front desk and asking if there have been any cancellations.
CAMPING IN BEAR COUNTRY
The national parks’ campgrounds and some campgrounds outside the parks provide food-storage boxes that can keep bears from pilfering your edibles (portable canisters for backpackers can be rented in most park stores). It’s imperative that you move all food, coolers, and items with a scent (including toiletries, toothpaste, chewing gum, and air fresheners) from your car (including the trunk) to the storage box at your campsite; day-trippers should lock food in bear boxes provided at parking lots. If you don’t, a bear may break into your car by literally peeling off the door or ripping open the trunk, or it may ransack your tent. The familiar tactic of hanging your food from high tree limbs is not an effective deterrent, as bears can easily scale trees. In the Southern Sierra, bear canisters are the only effective and proven method for preventing bears from getting human food.
ABOUT THE CAMPGROUNDS
It should come as no surprise that the 464 campsites within Yosemite Valley are the park’s most tightly spaced and, along with the 304-site campground at Tuolumne Meadows, the most difficult to secure on anything approaching short notice—say, less than three months. If you are going to concentrate solely on Valley sites and activities, you should endeavor to stay in one of the three "Pines" campgrounds, which are clustered near Curry Village and within an easy stroll from that busy complex’s many facilities (buffet, shops, pool, bike rentals, etc.). For a more primitive and quiet experience, and to be near many backcountry hikes, try one of the Tioga Road campgrounds, a few of which are several miles off that seasonal road and therefore quite remote. From the Wawona Campground, you will have fewer hiking options (although they are good ones), but will be close to the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias, Yosemite’s most popular attraction outside of the Valley.
All sites come with picnic tables, fire pits or grills, and a food locker to keep bears from ruining your day. At Valley campgrounds, shower and laundry facilities are nearby. Off the beaten path, at Porcupine Flat, Tamarack Flat, and Yosemite Creek, pit toilets are as good as it gets bathroom-wise, there’s no water, and RVs longer than 24 feet are not recommended. No sites in the park have RV hookups.
The park’s backcountry and the surrounding wilderness have some unforgettable campsites that can be reached only via long and often difficult hikes or horseback rides. Delaware North operates five High Sierra Camps with comfortable, furnished tent cabins in the remote reaches of Yosemite; rates include breakfast and dinner service. The park concessionaire books the extremely popular backcountry camps by lottery; applications are due by late November for the following summer season. Phone | 801/559–4909 for more information, or check for current availability by navigating from | www.yosemitepark.com to the High Sierra Camps pages.
To camp in a High Sierra campground such as Glen Aulin near Tuolumne Meadows and the centrally placed Merced Lake, you must obtain a wilderness permit. Make reservations up to 24 weeks in advance first