California - Campgrounds in Yosemite

Our group (3 families with 7 children, 3 medium trailers) is looking to book 3 campsites for a 5 weekday camping trip the end of June to Yosemite.

I am looking for suggestions on a centrally located campground entering from the west as we are coming from Seattle. We were considering Lower/Upper/North Pines but was wondering if it will be a pain to drive through the Valley to get to other parts of the park.

SUggestions?

PBQ

The Valley will of course be crowded then, so yes it will be a bit of a pain. Note that during the summer, the park runs a shuttle bus service around the Valley, so you'd just need to drive when going somewhere outside the valley.

My preference in Yosemite is the Ahwanee campground, but it does cost a bit more! :)

You apparently know campgrounds need to be reserved in advance. I'm mildly surprised you've still found openings.

More of a hassle than what? What other areas of the park are you considering?Congrats. The Valley is the center of most activities and attractions, so it's actually, to my mind, a convenient place to be based. You can use the park's shuttle, and walk, to many places inside the Valley. You don't say where else in the park you would go and how much time you'd spend there vs. in the Valley. Yes, you'd have to drive from Yosemite Valley to get to Wawona, Tuolumne, etc., but if you camp outside of Yosemite Valley you'd have to drive to get there.

I do hope you get up to the Tuolulmne Meadows/Tioga Pass area. It's very different than Yosemite Valley. Alpine-like. Could you perhaps go home by exiting via Tioga Pass, then going north on Hwy. 395 as far north as Bend (or cutting over, before that, to Klamath Falls)? You could see some different scenery, and maybe drop by Mono Lake and Bodie State Park (ghost town)

The Valley is the center of most activities and attractions, so it's actually, to my mind, a convenient place to be based. You can use the park's shuttle, and walk, to many places inside the Valley.

I do hope you get up to the Tuolulmne Meadows/Tioga Pass area. It's very different than Yosemite Valley. Alpine-like. Could you perhaps go home by exiting via Tioga Pass, then going north on Hwy. 395 as far north as Bend (or cutting over, before that, to Klamath Falls)? You could see some different scenery, and maybe drop by Mono Lake and Bodie State Park (ghost town)


Reservations for our timeframe open 2/15.
We are hoping for a centrally located campground as we want to see as a many as the different areas as possible. I also didn't know if there were hours long traffic jams in the valley as if we stayed in the Pines area, we would have to traverse through there often. We learned this lesson on our last summer's trip to Yellowstone. We spent a lot of time driving to the northern part of the park and should have book a campground there.

Thanks for the tip on Tuolulmne. We'll plan that in!~

Even if there are traffic jams (and I haven't seen them that bad, but I haven't been there at peak season for a while), you'd have to drive through them to get to see things in the Valley, no matter where you stay. Have you mappedout, at least tentatively, where you do want to go in the park?

If you are going to spend the bulk of your time outside of the Valley (e.g., Wawona, Tuolumne, White Wolf), it could make sense to stay there and go into the Valley once (park and use the shuttle), but most people want to spend most of their time in the Valley and you stated you want to be in a "centrally located" area. If you stay in the Valley, would you be "commuting" to other areas of the park on several occasions, or maybe just once? While you're in Yosemite Valley, you may have to contend with crowds in stores, on trails and on the shuttles, even if you're not driving. Obviously the closer you get to Fourth of July weekend the more crowded it will be. And at this point, are you sure you'd even get a Valley campground, whether the Pines or elsewhere? You have a Plan B in case you don't? How well do you tolerate crowds (not just driving, but in general)? If you want solitude, Yosemite Valley near Fourth of July may not be ideal. In fact, maybe nowhere in Yosemite is ideal, but it is still a beautiful park to see. If you do decide to exit the park over Tioga, there are (or at lest were) some inexpensive Forest Service campgrounds between the park boundary and Lee Vining/Mono Lake. I think there's still a basic campground at Bodie, plus several along Hwy. 395 to the north. Tioga Pass is a little step and winding, but I assume you'd have no problems with your vehicles and trailers.

How well the various campgrounds are suited to "medium sized" trailers, I don't know. I assume you can disattach the trailers from the vehicles towing them for day excursions.

I strongly recommend staying in the valley. It is the central location, as many things you'll want to see are in the valley. For example, if I were visiting Yosemite for 5 days I would expect to spend 2-3 days in the valley, 2 days in the Tioga Pass/Tuolumne Meadows area, and 1/2 day at Glacier Point.