Camping Overview: Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park Highlights

• White Wolf Campground, a summertime favorite, is set at 8,000 feet in elevation along Tioga Pass Road. Sites are tucked in among granite boulders and lodgepole pines. Trails to Lukens Lake and Harden Lake lead directly from camp. If you tire of blackened hot dogs, you can get a home-cooked meal at neighboring White Wolf Lodge.
• Popular with anglers and swimmers because of its setting alongside Big Creek, Summerdale Campground is only a mile from the southern entrance to Yosemite. With a base camp here, you can get up early and beat the crowds to the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. Or you can get a fresh morning start on the hike to Chilnualna Falls.
• At 10,087 feet, Saddlebag Lake is the highest lake to which you can drive in California. Set in a stark landscape high above treeline, the lake and its neighboring 20-site campground are only five miles from the Tioga Pass entrance to Yosemite. A boat taxi shuttles hikers and anglers across the lake to the 20 Lakes Basin in the Hoover Wilderness.
• If you seek the seclusion of a grove of aspen trees or the convenience of a fish-filled stream just a few feet from your tent, you'll love Boulder and Aspen Campgrounds in Lee Vining Canyon, just east of Tioga Pass. Camp here in autumn for an unforgettable fall color show.
• Bridalveil Creek Campground is a perfect base camp for exploring Glacier Point Road's many day-hiking trails, and it boasts unexpected luxury in the form of flush toilets. Stay as long as you like for sunset at Glacier Point and enjoy a blissfully short drive "home."