Tuolumne Horse Campsites
1Heads up1 fire 25 mi away
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 4All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
Tuolumne Meadows Campground standard and Group site reservations are located here: Tuolumne Meadows Campground, Yosemite National Park - Recreation.gov Tuolumne Horse Campsites will open on July 1. Reservations for the additional dates July 1-14 will release June 20 at 7AM PST. Tuolumne Meadows Horse Campsites are located within Tuolumne Meadows Campground in breathtaking Yosemite National Park in Central California's rugged Sierra Nevada Mountain Range at an elevation of 8,600 feet. Keep reading
The site is situated along the scenic Tioga Road just eight miles from the Tioga Pass Entrance Station and 55 miles from Yosemite Valley. Within Yosemite, visitors can gaze upon waterfalls, sheer granite cliffs, deep valleys, grand meadows, ancient giant sequoias, vast wilderness areas, and so much more. Reservation Tips! Campsites in Yosemite are extremely popular and typically sell out in minutes. Login to your account or create a new account before the 7:00 a.m. (PST) release time. You may only add reservations to your cart and proceed with your reservation if you are logged into your account. The recreation.gov call center does NOT have access to additional sites or additional information beyond what is published on recreation.gov.
Recreation
Popular activities in the area include hiking, rock climbing, backpacking and fishing. The 4.8-mile roundtrip trail to Elizabeth Lake begins in the campground and climbs to a glacier-carved lake at the base of Unicorn Peak. Other trails in Tuolumne Meadows include Soda Springs and Parsons Lodge, Lyell Canyon via the John Muir Trail, Cathedral Lakes, Mono Pass, and Glen Aulin. Nearby Tenaya Lake is a magnificent spot for picnicking, swimming and canoeing.
Facilities
Tuolumne Horse Campsites accommodate only those with horses or other stock animals . Reservations are required. Campsites have picnic tables, fire rings, and food storage lockers. Flush toilets, drinking water, and an amphitheater are provided. Tuolumne Meadows Visitor Center is within walking distance, as is a general store.
Natural Features
Tuolumne Meadows embodies the high-country of the Sierra Nevada, with its broad sub-alpine meadows and granite domes and peaks. The gentle Tuolumne River, Lyell Fork, and Dana Fork flow through the vast, colorful meadows bursting with seasonal wildflowers. The meadows are surrounded by stands of Western White pine, Mountain hemlock, and Lodgepole pine.
Nearby Attractions
Tuolumne Horse Campsites accommodate only those with horses or other stock animals . Reservations are required. Campsites have a picnic table, fire ring, and a food storage locker. Flush toilets, drinking water, and an amphitheater are provided. Tuolumne Meadows Visitor Center is within walking distance, as is a general store.
Charges & Cancellations
Cancellations always incur a $10 fee. Within 48 hours of the arrival date, cancellations will also incur the first night's camping fee. No shows will be charged $20 and the first night of camping.
What the agency tells you
If you arrive without a horse, your reservation will be cancelled and you will be asked to leave.
You are responsible for educating yourself and booking a site that will accommodate your equipment.
If arriving one or more days late, call (209) 372-4025 or (209) 372-8502. Your reservation will be cancelled if we do not hear from you within 24 hours of your arrival date.
Everything else this campground posts · 10
Bear Habitat! Food and toiletries must be stored 24 hours a day in food lockers provided (45" wide by 33" deep by 18" tall). No food or scented items stored in vehicles. Dispose of garbage immediately in bear-proof dumpsters.
Grain needs to be stored in food storage lockers provided on-site. Grazing is prohibited. The use of weed-free feed is encouraged.
Potable water and a dump station for RV's/Trailers is located approximately 1 mile west on Hwy 120 (Tioga Rd) on the south side of the road, just before the Visitor Center.
Campsites must be cleaned daily. Manure and uneaten fodder must be raked, bagged and deposited in dumpsters.
Campers must bring their own method of containing horses, such as portable corrals, hitching lines, or electric fencing. Containment systems must be placed within the campsite boundaries—please check with campground staff for appropriate placement
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.
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: https://www.nps.gov/yose/getinvolved/zlf.htm
For additional park information, call (209) 372-0200 or visit www.nps.gov/yose
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. Visit dontmovefirewood.org to learn more.
Resale or auction of reservations is illegal.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 4 · 4 equestrian
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 27 ft
- Paved pads
- 3 of 4
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets - seasonal
- Drinking water
- Yes
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Store
- Nearby
- Bear boxes
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Lake, River, Meadow
- Backpacking
- Evening Programs
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Ranger programs
- Climbing
- Scenic drives
- Stargazing
- Swimming
- Wilderness access
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 169th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 11 days ago, 23 km away
- Peak color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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 · 9
What you actually pay
“Cancellations always incur a $10 fee. No shows will be charged $20 and the first night of camping.” · 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 · 5
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
4 sites
All 4 sites
| HORSE | HORSE #1 (HORSES ARE MANDATORY) | equestrian nonelectric | 27 ft |
| HORSE | HORSE #2 (HORSES ARE MANDATORY) | equestrian nonelectric | 27 ft |
| HORSE | HORSE #3 (HORSES ARE MANDATORY) | equestrian nonelectric | 27 ft |
| HORSE | HORSE #4 (HORSES ARE MANDATORY) | equestrian nonelectric | 27 ft |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Tuolumne Meadows CampgroundYosemite National Park · 0.2 miTioga Lake CampgroundInyo National Forest · 6.8 miJunction CampgroundInyo National Forest · 7.4 miSawmill Walk-in CampgroundInyo National Forest · 7.6 miEllery Lake CampgroundInyo National Forest · 7.7 mi
Saddlebag Lake Trailhead Group CampInyo National Forest · 7.9 miTake Highway 41 north from Fresno, Highway 140 east from Merced, Highway 120 east from Manteca or west from Lee Vining (State Route 395) into Yosemite National Park. Tuolumne Meadows Campground and Horse sites are located 5 miles from the Tioga Pass Entrance station (Hwy 120 from the east) and is 55 miles (2 hours) from Yosemite Valley.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Virginia Lakes, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 20°F, day 61°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 8°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July 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
Tuolumne Horse Campsites 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 →