Yosemite National Park Camping

Upper Pines campground is conveniently located within walking distance of Curry Village & eateries, shops, and showers. Happy Isles is not far away, as well as the starting trail heads of Vernal falls, Nevada Falls, and the Top of Half Dome hikes.

• Mark A, - Yosemite camper since 1967

Stumbled across Campnab while researching places to boondock in Yosemite National Park during Thanksgiving (busy holiday). Campnab found me and absolute ABUNDANCE of openings in real time. We had a great holiday :) Thank You.

I have now been to Yosemite numerous times. It's a place that brings peace and tranquility to my life. It's easy to walk and there's always shuttles and lots of people. It's very busy in the spring and summer but worth seeing the entire valley boom into life. I recommend camping in the valley at least a couple of nights you can hear the wind hit the granite and see the stars cascade over the sky. There are many things but my favorite is the merced river, I could spend hours listening to it.

Yosemite is absolutely one of our favorite national parks. We have been going there for years, we stay in The Valley and always bring bikes. They are an essential piece of equipment to bring with you, there’s nothing kids love more than riding their bikes in Yosemite Valley from hike to hike. Highly recommend it to anyone who is curious..

We camped at North Pines for five days in August after getting a site through the lottery. It was a great location to explore the valley from. Close to Curry Village, several popular hikes, the nature center, Ahwahnee and more. We particularly loved playing in the river right in the campground. The sites are close together so if you have a noisy neighbor that can be an issue.

Your service saved us, and the easy use of your website made the whole experience a pleasure. I will definitely be using Campnap again when needed.

I was lucky enough to nab 2 nights at separate spots at the same campsite during July 4th weekend! It was hot, but water gushing. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay. Thank you so much!!! Gotta love this app.

Crowded! Camped looking up at Half Dome but man these sites are packed in sardines. Someone next to you and behind you and all around haha. But Yosemite is Yosemite and it's the price gotta pay.

Lower Pines is in Yosemite Valley and that’s where you want to be. There are flush toilets but the washrooms are pretty basic. However, camping next to Halfdome is worth it! Highly recommend.

Thanks to Campnab we were able to book a site June 11th in north pines at a spot that we found online that someone else had tried to book for 8 years! It had an incredible view of Yosemite falls and was next to the river. I never knew this campground and now it’s our go to. Thanks campnab for making my loves birthday beautiful.

I’m an outside enthusiastic but not all the campsite fits my city girly needs. This campsite has it all! Clean showers and toilets, potable spring water, parking, wildlife (bears) and park rangers making sure you’re safe 24/7! Close to everything!

Make sure that you don’t hang your hammock on oak trees and without protection for the tree. You are allowed to pick up wood within your campsite. Always display your tag on your tent and make sure you close the bear container. Park rangers walk through the campsite and they will give you a warning (if you’re lucky) or even a fine if you don’t follow the rules.

There are wheel barrels that you can use to carry your stuff.

Showers are pack at breakfast and dinner so plan accordingly (it can take up to 1hr to get into a shower).

Bonus tip: across from the campsite there’s a pool, in spring/summer it’s open to the public!

This is an amazing campsite. However, if you’re expecting it to be 100% quiet, it’s not. Even though you have check in/check out hours, there are people driving here from far away and setting up their tents at nighttime/morning so if you want quiet earplugs are encouraged!

I absolutely love this campsite I’ll come back every year!

We got the perfect campsite with views of Yosemite Falls and Half Dome. We were able to walk to Camp Curry to get snacks and ice cream. We rode our bikes to the Mist Trail trail and had a great time with lots of pictures. Highly recommend Yosemite, especially if you can use Campnab l!

good spot, it is without car , and each site is shared a 2 or 3 other groups, so its good if you like to make friends.

Thanks to CampNab, my family and I got a camping reservation. CampNab notified me of the cancellation, and I was already logged into Recreation.gov and made the reservation. For it to work, you must be diligently watching and ready to log in.

I’ve spent 12 years in california and haven’t been to yosemite because it was too hard to find a campsite and I’m not great at planning trips 6 months ahead of time. Camp nab saved our trip! We had so much fun at camp four. Within a few hundred yards to Yosemite falls and more adventures in Yosemite valley. Can’t wait to come back

The natural beauty of Yosemite National Park can't be overstated, and this year, after record snowfall, the spring runoff has generated magnificent waterfalls. I've been coming here since I was a kid, almost 50 years now, and I've never seen the park so spectacular. I saw fast flowing falls in places that are almost always dry. Incredible.

That being said, we visited a week before memorial day, which I suppose is technically the "off" season. Despite a good crowd, park services were limited at best. Most of the eateries were closed, and those that we found open were busy, tended by obviously stressed out and tired workers.

Shuttle buses were running at 30 minute intervals—with most of them packed to capacity. On a number of occasions, drivers were forced to leave a dozen or so people behind; the bus was just too full. Parking was relatively easy by comparison, and we found ourselves wishing we had ignored guidelines & driven from place to place.

The final blow was an empty ice cream freezer in the village store.

We tend to visit in the off season, so some limitations in service are not unexpected. I do wish, though, that park management could be more flexible. In a time of epic conditions and nice weather, they should be ready to scale up to meet the demand.

Excellent location for camping 🏕️

This campsite fills up fast but thanks to Campnab, we were able to stay a few nights. It makes hiking around the park so much easier as you don't have to plan to drive home in the evening. There were nice tall trees and views of Half Dome. Bears do come around so be mindful of food and scented items and follow all instructions from the rangers.

Upper Pines is surrounded by beauty and is proximal to many truly excellent day hikes (mirror lake photo). A moonlight walk up and down the access road is just gorgeous with the river gurgling by and the huge monoliths contrasted against sky. Our campsite 233 was situated in an area of campground which when viewed from map is right in the middle of a group. But sites are well laid out and we did not feel too close to our neighbors.

There is no place in the world like Yosemite! Please make plans to go if you have never been. But you will probably need Campnab.com to get a site in peak times. We had good luck using it after being frustrated. It has easy access for anyone regardless of ability. The whole base camp area has flat paved trail for easy wheelchair access and free bus service for all. You can bike all over too. Of course there are crazy extreme options for others.

Yosemite is a magnificent park with spectacular views everywhere you look. I was able to capture the red glow on half dome at sunset this time in October. Breathtaking! Yosemite will never disappoint you. I have been going to Yosemite for 60 years and I am still in ah each time I visit.

Camping in the Valley is an amazing experience, there is nothing like it. We usually park our car and bike to the trail heads and other attractions the entire time we are there. THis is definitely a bucket list adventure.

We got 2 nights at Upper Pines campground through campnab in July 2021. Campnab gave more than 20 notificatiions and we were able to nab one;).

It was a memorable experience. Where river was just next to the campground and we spent both the afternoons there. We were camping with our 10 month old and 5 year old. They had a blast. We also spotted a black bear running through the backside of the campground as ranger was chasing it out. Overall a nice campground with clean toilets and accessible sites in the valley.

Growing up in California, I've gone up to Yosemite a few times and it never ceases to take my breath away. It's gorgeous all year long, but I would suggest trying as hard as possible to stay away from school holidays. The park can get extremely busy and crowds/traffic make the whole experience a little less fun.

I will always grab Upper Pines sites over North and Lower as the bathrooms (specifically the waterfill stations) have consistently functioned. That being said, all 3 campgrounds are standard and a great way to stay in the Valley.

North Pines river side sites are the most scenic though

Yosemite valley and surrounding areas cannot be limited to one trip. Park is so large and beeming with activities round the year. I commend park's NPS staff is doing much more than their best to run the day to day. Very informative, looking out and service oriented employees. I have been there about 8 times so far, and many more to go

Easy to use and we were able to get a campsite in Yosemite during peak season. Will definitely use again!

This campground has an amazing valley location and some views of half dome. Don't come here expecting privacy or peace - but who is sitting in their campsite all day. Sites are close together but I was too tired after days of exploring to notice.

I love the service from Campnab. I was able to get 5 nights in a coveted camp site in Yosemite Valley after the reservations sold out in 3 mins. Absolutely love their services.

Campnab not only helped us snag a last minute campsite at Yosemite but there were at least 4 that we were notified about once we already had one in the meadows. Several of them in the valley!! Can’t recommend this site enough. It’s always worked well for me

We’ve given up on Yosemite Valley stays: too hard to get a reservation, too many people in too many small sites, noisy, smokey, hot in the summer. Instead, try Wawona. No it’s not the Valley, but it’s a mere 45 minute drive. River sites are wonderful, it’s not super crowded and most sites are nicely spaced. Good hiking to Chilnualna Falls and the Mariposa Grove. Don’t miss the Wawona Hotel for a cocktail and classic piano tunes.

It is almost impossible to get a Yosemite Valley camp site without the help from Campnab.

Not sure how to right a review for the center of the climbing universe. If you can avoid visiting the Valley in the summer when the heat and crowds are at the worst, do. If the summer is your only option go to Tuolumne. It's spectacular and in it's own way more beautiful than the Valley. The Valley calms way down in October and November when the temps get a little more sendy.

A nice campground with potable water and soft ground. No location bonus like Upper or North Pines, but that is why you have a car or bikes.

THE place to camp if you want to climb Washington Column, since it is closer than the regular trailhead parking. This campground tents to be the quietest of the three.

About a half mile from the trailhead for Nevada Falls and Half Dome, this campground is is a great spot to make your alpine start a little easier. It can get smoky when everyone has a campfire, but otherwise the ground is soft and bathrooms are clean.

Campnab is the only way to get a spot at popular parks, especially at peak times of year. It's my secret weapon for good times at my favorite spots.

Only reason I got a site though was cause of CampNab!

I now understand why it is so hard to get reservations to this place. This truly is a must see park. I come from South Africa - and this park is now my favorite place in the world. So do with that information what you will.

We decided about 1 month out that we wanted to take a trip to Yosemite and shoot out engagement session. As you know, Yosemite fills up fast! Someone told me about Campnab and I signed up right away. I kept getting the texts and missing the available spots because I wasn’t getting to them fast enough. About 2 weeks in I finally snagged on in our desired location. Campnab saved our butts.

I needed a one-night campsite to bridge a cabin stay and a backcountry permit in the insanely popular Yosemite National Park - during the week of July 4th no less! Campnab came through and it notified me of a cancellation and I was able to snag a spot in the Upper Pines Campground.

The app is super easy to use and the Campnab team is very friendly and helpful to work with if you have any questions. If you need a campsite and everything is booked up, this is the solution you're looking for!

We love this campground. It’s about what you’d expect from a national park campground. Not a lot of privacy, but a beautiful location with easy access to all of the main attractions in the park. This is the easiest campground to get reservations at because it has the most sites. Avoid the sites along the trail as people often walk through your campsite to get to the bathrooms, etc.

We love Yosemite...but we missed the day when the sites were released! Setting up my Campnab alert made it possible for us to nab 2 nights at our beloved Lower Pines Campground! Thank you!

OK--so if you can get a camp site in the Valley, it makes exploring this part of Yosemite so much easier. And if you miss getting a reservation, you should absolutely make use of CampNab!

I didn't know this before visiting, but Lower Pines, North Pines and Upper Pines are all very close to one another--you can pretty much walk between them. So they are all outstanding spots. But, we really lucked out when we snagged site #089 in Lower Pines. It was slightly removed from the crowds and we had access to the Stoneman Meadow boardwalk right from our site. It was a great location!

I also highly recommend renting bikes in the Valley. It is a fun way to explore the breathtaking scenery! And our kids were old enough to take a map and set out on their own--fun for everyone.

Upper Pines is the most enjoyable campground in Yosemite Valley. Close to trails, trams, dining and rental conveniences. My 1st trip to Yosemite was in 1967 - the trials of getting a campsite sure has changes thru the years. Due to my discovery of CampNab, I was able to “nab” a great spot 2 weeks before my scheduled trip this past July!