Tamarack Flat Campground
1Heads up1 fire 14 mi away
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- A night
- $24From, per site
- Sites
- 5453 on recreation.gov
- Season
- June 22 – October 12Open June 22 through October 12
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Staying at Tamarack Flat Campground requires reservations. Opening date for the Tamarack Flat Campground varies depending on the opening of the Tioga Road and related seasonal facility and road work. Tamarack Flat Campground is located off the Tioga Road just east of Crane Flat. The campground is approximately 20 miles (45 minutes) from Yosemite Valley and is tucked away in the forest 3 miles off Tioga Road. RVs and Trailers are not recommended for this hard to access, primitive campground. Keep reading
At an elevation of 6,300 feet (1,900 m) elevation, the campground is near Tamarack Creek, which is a seasonal water source that must be filtered, treated, or boiled. You should bring water! For additional park information, call (209)372-0200 or visit www.nps.gov/yose Recreation Yosemite's trails, cliffs, roads and rivers provide endless recreational activities for any kind of visitor. Hiking, biking, rock climbing, fishing, horseback riding, rafting, auto touring, and photography are all very popular activities within the park. A hiking and backpacking trail leaves from the campground and can be used to hike to areas such as Cascade Creek, El Capitan and other points along the North Rim of Yosemite Valley. Yosemite Valley is a 25 mile drive from Tamarack Flat Campground. Many of Yosemite's most popular trails along with the Merced River, bike trails, beaches and picnic areas can be easily accessed in Yosemite Valley. Two of Yosemite's three groves of giant sequoias are located in the Crane Flat area (5-10 miles from Tamarack Flat). Tuolumne and Merced Groves of Giant Sequoias, both of which require a 2.5 to 3-mile roundtrip hike to view. The trailheads are accessible year-round, although trails may be snow-covered winter. Both short hikes lead downhill into sheltered areas with flowing water, dogwood, azaleas, and ancient sequoia trees. Many other hiking opportunities exist at trailheads along the Tioga Road and in Tuolumne Meadows. For additional park recreation information, visit www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/ Facilities Tamarack Flat Campground can only by accessed by a 3 mile long, narrow, single-lane road with many hairpin turns. RVs and Trailers are NOT recommended. Seasonal facilities include tent/van sites, vault toilets, trash/recycling collection, food storage lockers, fire rings and picnic tables. There is no cell phone reception, no internet connectivity, no camp store, no ice or firewood for sale, no laundry facilities, no dump station and no showers.
Natural Features
Yosemite National Park covers nearly 1,200 square miles (3,100 square km) in the Sierra Nevada, with elevations ranging from about 2,000 feet (600 m) to 13,000 ft (4,000 m). Yosemite receives 95% of its precipitation between October and May, and over 75% between November and March. Most of Yosemite is blanketed in snow from about November through May. Tamarack Flat is situated along a seasonal creek which is it's only source of water. Creek water must be treated and/or boiled before consuming. You should bring water!
Nearby Attractions
Just 25 miles away is Yosemite Valley, an awe-inspiring landscape containing many of the famous features for which Yosemite National Park is known. Hiking trails and bike paths are abundant in the valley. Rafting the Merced River is a fun way to cool down on a summer day when water levels are sufficient. Yosemite Valley also offers numerous guided bus tours, educational programs, museums, ranger-led activities, and an art center with workshops. The Tioga Road offers a 39-mile scenic drive past forests, meadows, lakes and granite domes. Tuolumne Meadows embodies the high-country of the Sierra Nevada, with its broad sub-alpine meadows and granite peaks. Several trailheads line the road offering hikes to beautiful, secluded areas that can only be accessed and enjoyed by foot. Beautiful Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, just 23 miles from Crane Flat, is home to spectacular scenery and numerous wilderness trailheads. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (209) 379-2123.
Charges & Cancellations
Cancellations more than 48 hours in advance of arrival date will generate a refund, less a $10 transaction fee. Within 48 hours, $10 and the first night's fee are charged. One night reservations do not incur an additional $10 fee, but do not receive a refund. No-shows will be assessed a $20 service fee along with the loss of the first night's fee.
What the agency tells you
You are responsible for reading the site alerts and booking a site that will accommodate your equipment. Tamarack Flat Campground can only by accessed by a 3 mile long, narrow, single-lane road with many hairpin turns. RVs and Trailers are NOT recommended.
If arriving one or more days late, call (209) 379-2123; your reservation will be cancelled if we do not hear from you within 24 hours of your arrival date.
Bring proof of your reservation (screen shot or paper version). There is no internet access, cell service or public phone in Tamarack Flat. - You must sign in at the entrance of the campground or you will be considered a no show and your reservation cancelled. - Make your site look occupied--leave a chair or other equipment so we know you've arrived.
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Bears and wildlife live here! Food and toiletries must be properly stored 24 hours per day. - Food storage lockers provided in all campsites (43" Wide x 28" High x 35" Deep) - Absolutely NO food storage in vehicles. - Dispose of garbage immediately in bear-proof receptacles. If dumpsters are full, take trash to dumpsters at the top of the road near the entrance.
Tamarack Flat is a primitive campground with vault toilets and no drinking water. A seasonal creek runs through the campground but water must be boiled and/or treated before drinking. Do not rely on creek water being available; bring water!
Check-in and check-out time is 12 noon.
Your camping reservation does NOT get you into Yosemite for free. You must pay an additional fee per vehicle at the park entrance or buy a pass ahead of time on recreation.gov.
Don't Move Firewood: Help protect our forests! Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on-site. Moving firewood is illegal in some states. Visit dontmovefirewood.org to learn more.
Help Yosemite be a Zero Landfill park! Leave excess packaging at home. Use refillable water bottles, food containers and travel mugs. Place all of your recyclable waste in designated recycling containers. For more information go to: www.nps.gov/yose/getinvolved/
For additional park information, visit www.nps.gov/yose
Resale or auction of advance reservations is prohibited.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 54 · 3 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 20 ft
- Paved pads
- 1 of 54
- Accessible sites
- 5
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets - seasonal
- Showers
- None at this campground
- “There is no cell phone reception, no internet connectivity, no camp store, no ice or firewood for sale, no laundry facilities, no dump station and no showers.”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- Store
- Nearby
- Bear boxes
- Yes
- Firewood
- Sold here
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek, Beach, Meadow
- Night sky · 445th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Park Service says
- None
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 53 of the 54 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $24 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
“Cancellations more than 48 hours in advance of arrival date will generate a refund, less a $10 transaction fee. Within 48 hours, $10 and the first night's fee are charged.” · this campground’s own no-show terms
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
54 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 53 mapped sitesAll 54 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 54 of the 54 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 53 of the 54 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| Tamarack Flat | 001 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 197 ft | 195 ft | 731 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 002 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 197 ft | 298 ft | 589 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 003 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 36 ft | 335 ft | 439 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 004 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 36 ft | 369 ft | 407 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 005 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 51 ft | 299 ft | 323 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 006 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 51 ft | 249 ft | 319 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 007 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 54 ft | 213 ft | 292 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 008 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 64 ft | 153 ft | 296 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 009 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 63 ft | 70 ft | 335 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 010 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 63 ft | 68 ft | 312 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 011 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 50 ft | 61 ft | 429 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 012 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 50 ft | 66 ft | 437 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 013 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 54 ft | 144 ft | 513 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 014 | tent only nonelectric | 54 ft | 138 ft | 507 ft | $24 | ||
| Tamarack Flat | 015 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 71 ft | 213 ft | 655 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 016 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 57 ft | 189 ft | 584 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 017 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 57 ft | 138 ft | 548 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 018 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 51 ft | 87 ft | 567 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 019 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 27 ft | 57 ft | 607 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 020 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 27 ft | 38 ft | 626 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 021 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | yes | 35 ft | 181 ft | 237 ft | $24 |
| Tamarack Flat | 022 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | yes | 35 ft | 157 ft | 240 ft | $24 |
| Tamarack Flat | 023 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | yes | 62 ft | 213 ft | 179 ft | $24 |
| Tamarack Flat | 024 | type not stated | 20 ft | yes | 272 ft | 109 ft | ||
| Tamarack Flat | 025 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 106 ft | 293 ft | 181 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 026 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 105 ft | 361 ft | under 10 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 027 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 103 ft | 385 ft | 109 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 028 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 137 ft | 611 ft | 272 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 029 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 58 ft | 643 ft | 189 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 030 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 58 ft | 692 ft | 141 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 031 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 92 ft | 752 ft | 120 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 032 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 32 ft | 950 ft | 142 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 033 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 32 ft | 971 ft | 151 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 034 | tent only nonelectric | 18 ft | 81 ft | 285 ft | 116 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 035 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 73 ft | 303 ft | 190 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 036 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 73 ft | 357 ft | 242 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 037 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 56 ft | 232 ft | 270 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 038 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | yes | 94 ft | 300 ft | 326 ft | $24 |
| Tamarack Flat | 039 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 114 ft | 460 ft | 324 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 040 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 31 ft | 500 ft | 405 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 041 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 31 ft | 495 ft | 431 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 042 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 34 ft | 473 ft | 465 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 043 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 82 ft | 377 ft | 513 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 044 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 82 ft | 382 ft | 444 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 045 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 67 ft | 254 ft | 450 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 047 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 67 ft | 272 ft | 517 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 048 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 81 ft | 192 ft | 495 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 049 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 95 ft | 108 ft | 443 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 050 | tent only nonelectric | 56 ft | 182 ft | 310 ft | $24 | ||
| Tamarack Flat | 051 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 44 ft | 217 ft | 156 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 052 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 44 ft | 183 ft | 185 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 053 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 41 ft | 147 ft | 224 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 054 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 41 ft | 133 ft | 247 ft | $24 | |
| Tamarack Flat | 055 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 70 ft | 76 ft | 316 ft | $24 |
25 of 54 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Crane Flat CampgroundYosemite National Park · 6.0 mi
Camp 4Yosemite National Park · 7.3 mi
Dry GulchStanislaus National Forest · 7.8 mi
Hodgdon Meadow CampgroundYosemite National Park · 7.8 mi
Dirt FlatStanislaus National Forest · 8.1 mi
Dimond OStanislaus National Forest · 8.5 miWhen entering Yosemite from west of the Sierras - Take Highway 41 north from Fresno, Highway 140 east from Merced, or Highway 120 east from Manteca into Yosemite National Park.
When Tioga Pass is open, Tamarack Flat can be accessed from the east side of the Sierras - Take HWY 120 east/Tioga Rd. The Tamarack Flat access road is 36 miles west of Tuolumne Meadows.
The Tamarack Flat Campground access road is located 5 miles east Crane Flat along the Tioga Rd. The access road itself is 3 miles long and is narrow, single lane and windy.
Tamarack flat is 28 miles (45 minutes) northwest of Yosemite Valley.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Foresta, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 46°F, day 60°F.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Augusts are colder than the August line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Tamarack Flat Campground is in California’s 5th congressional district. Its representative, Tom McClintock (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…lockers, fire rings and picnic tables. There is no cell phone reception, no internet connectivity, no camp store, no ice or firewood…”