Yosemite/Sequoia National Parks - USD $300 per night for a room. Really?
 

Kinda strange for me - a Californian - asking this question , but I left California 7 years ago and when I recently checked lodging prices at some familiar places, got a sticker shock.

I, my wife and family friend are going on road trip for 5 days in mid-June Monday-Friday. Staring at Reno, drive via Tioga Pass thru Yosemite, stay one night, then arriving at Sequoia NP, stay two nights and finally - come to Bay Area via CA-1.

I wanted to have one night, two rooms, or one room, as long as it sleeps three adults, around/at Yosemite/Sequoia NP and what I see is $300 per night per room, which is 3x of my budget. Last time I stayed at these NPs was 14 years ago and things were not that bad.

Anyone here recently stayed at Sequoia/Yosemite or at surrounding areas? Where did you stay and how much did you pay? What are alternatives or suggestions? AirBnB does not work. Priceline neither.

I just need a clean room and bedding in non-noisy place with hot running water. Everything else is not necessary.

Peak travel/vacation season at a popular national park with limited accommodations is going to result in high rates.

When are you looking to stay? Indian Park Campgrounds has tents/cabins for rates starting at $129, but I imagine they're fairly limited. When I booked similar accommodations near Denali, they filled about 6 months ahead of peak summer travel times.

Cedar Lodge also has less expensive rooms, but only for a few of the random dates I checked in June - $189.

Monday, June 17th check in for Yosemite and 18-19th for Sequoya.

So 5 weeks out you're trying to book a room for 3 adults in one of America's most popular tourist attractions for $100? Completely unrealistic.

Even housekeeping units (shelter with walls, canvas roof, beds sans linens) are $108/night, not including tax, but June is already booked. 20 years ago we would book summer stays in those 360 days out to insure the dates we wanted. Right now the closest reservable campsite on federal land is 17 miles outside the valley.

Outside the park you'd be lucky to even find a room that would allow 3 adults this time of year.

As for Sequoia, a number of years back there was more lodging but the buildings were removed when it was realized the structures were damaging some of the trees the park was named after. Now you're lucky to even find availability there at all during the summer; there's only about 200 rooms total within the park. On the dates you list I see zero availability.

FYI you can't count on Tioga Pass being open by mid June. In 2017 it didn't open until June 29, and the snowpack then was almost the same as this season. See https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/tiogaopen.htm for more info, but there's currently no estimate of an opening date.

$300/ night is a decent rate for a Yosemite or any National Park during peak summer season.

If you don't have to be inside the parks, you might find better rates outside park boundaries. El Portal, Mariposa or Oakhurst for Yosemite and Three Rivers for Sequoia.

You thought that lodging prices would not change over the course of 14 years? :confused:

It's long been a given that for peak-season travel to popular national parks like Yosemite, you need to book a year (or nearly) in advance. These places receive literally millions of visitors per year, AND there is often very limited lodging within or near them. :(

Update on Tioga Pass: as of May 15, the short range forecast is for an additional 18 inches of snow this week, on top of the 176% of the normal snowpack already there. Odds of it opening before July 1 are exceedingly small.

+1...

Just went to both parks last week.

We looked at the pricing close to the parks and decided to stay in Fresno and Visalia.

The issue with doing that is that for Yosemite, you have to get to the park by 630 or 7 on summer weekends to get parking. Most of the lots were filled even on a May Friday by 11am. Youll want to park once in a main lot, then use the shuttles to get around the Valley. It was a bit of a drive from Fresno. I would park at the lodge, which has more services than the visitors center. The lot at the Visitors Center is a mess too.

For Sequoia, Visalia is actually only about a half hour away from the park entrance. But its another hour once in the park to the main sights. Parking is also a problem here. There wasnt a shuttle last week but there apparently is one during summer. In Sequoia, some of the sights, including the car pass through log are car only, so do that on your way out of the park. As far as I could tell, there isnt prepared food for sale in the park and no gas. So get a sandwich from subway on the way in. Also...make sure you have a FULL tank of gas prior to entering the park. Your normal fuel economy will plummet as you climb to Generals Highway from the south entrance. Our rental, a compact car, registered a quarter tank reduction once in the park. Its all uphill and in low gear. For over an hour.

Again, if you are willing to get up at 5 at Fresno for Yosemite and 630 at Visalia for Sequoia, you can save a lot of money.

FYI in past summers the lodge did not allow anyone who was not a registered guest to park there for more than 15 minutes, and then only in specially marked spaces.