Yosemite Creek Campground
2Heads up1 park alert · 1 fire 18 mi away
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- Sites
- 7674 on recreation.gov
- Season
- July 1 – September 7Open July 1 through September 7
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices
In the agency’s own words
Tucked away among the pines is the hidden gem of Yosemite Creek campground. Accessing this campground is an adventure down a rutted, 5-mile, single-lane dirt road. Motorhomes and trailers are NOT allowed. Keep reading
Recreation
Your adventure awaits! Hiking, swimming, bouldering, napping (some of us are tired!), bird watching; the possibilities are as great as your imagination. Be sure to bring bug spray and sunscreen, plenty of water, and dress in layers as the weather can rapidly change at this elevation.
Facilities
Yosemite Creek campground 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!
Natural Features
Granite boulders abound and the peaceful Yosemite Creek meanders through the campground on its way to Yosemite Valley. Bring your comfy chairs and hammocks and let the sounds of nature whisk you away from the busyness of day-to-day life.
Nearby Attractions
Head to Tuolumne Meadows for breathtaking views and a multitude of day hiking opportunities. Tenaya Lake is a great place to relax and swim or canoe. Yosemite Valley offers restaurants, museums, bike paths, day hikes and world-famous climbing. Don't forget about the Pioneer History center in Wawona, and of course, the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias. Be prepared to make your own fun here-take delight in the quiet and give your screens a rest.
What the agency tells you
You are responsible for reading the site alerts and booking a site that will accommodate your equipment. Yosemite Creek Campground is at the bottom of a steep, narrow, rutted, 5-mile long single-lane dirt road with many hairpin turns. DO NOT lie when selecting your equipment type; motorhomes and trailers are NOT allowed.
If arriving one or more days late, call (209) 379-2123. Your reservation will be canceled 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 Yosemite Creek. - 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 · 9
Bear Habitat! Food and toiletries must be properly stored in food storage lockers 24 hours per day. -Food storage lockers provided in all campsites (45"Wide x 18"High x 33"Deep) -Absolutely NO food storage in vehicles. -Dispose of garbage immediately in bear-proof receptacles.
Staying at Yosemite Creek Campground requires a reservation; NO exceptions and NO first come, first serve sites are available.
Yosemite Creek Campground 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: https://www.nps.gov/yose/getinvolved/zlf.htm
For additional park information, visit www.nps.gov/yose
Resale or auction of advance reservations is prohibited.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 76 · 17 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 20 ft
- Accessible sites
- 2
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets - seasonal
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Meadow
- Backpacking
- Birding
- Hiking
- Climbing
- Stargazing
- Swimming
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 300th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 2
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 74 of the 76 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 · 9
What you actually pay
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 · 4
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
76 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 73 mapped sitesAll 76 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 75 of the 76 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
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.
| Yose Creek | 01 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 140 ft | 1,004 ft | 1,266 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 02 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 111 ft | 866 ft | 1,126 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 03 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 71 ft | 755 ft | 1,018 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 04 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 71 ft | 685 ft | 948 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 05 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | yes | 73 ft | 773 ft | 1,021 ft |
| Yose Creek | 06 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 41 ft | 988 ft | 1,221 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 07 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 41 ft | 981 ft | 1,219 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 08 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 62 ft | 1,043 ft | 1,280 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 09 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 35 ft | 1,114 ft | 1,355 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 10 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 77 ft | 1,194 ft | 1,438 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 11 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 72 ft | 1,311 ft | 1,543 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 12 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 72 ft | 1,243 ft | 1,478 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 13 | tent only nonelectric | 35 ft | 1,139 ft | 1,377 ft | ||
| Yose Creek | 14 | tent only nonelectric | 75 ft | 976 ft | 1,182 ft | ||
| Yose Creek | 15 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 75 ft | 919 ft | 1,131 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 16 | tent only nonelectric | 35 ft | 884 ft | 1,103 ft | ||
| Yose Creek | 17 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 35 ft | 882 ft | 1,104 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 18 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 72 ft | 852 ft | 1,082 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 19 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 44 ft | 783 ft | 1,014 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 20 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 44 ft | 758 ft | 994 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 21 | type not stated | 20 ft | 643 ft | 896 ft | ||
| Yose Creek | 22 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 45 ft | 445 ft | 687 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 23 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 45 ft | 431 ft | 665 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 24 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 62 ft | 501 ft | 738 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 25 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 99 ft | 576 ft | 804 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 26 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 95 ft | 369 ft | 662 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 27 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 68 ft | 347 ft | 679 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 28 | tent only nonelectric | 68 ft | 312 ft | 680 ft | ||
| Yose Creek | 29 | tent only nonelectric | 63 ft | 240 ft | 628 ft | ||
| Yose Creek | 30 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 67 ft | 274 ft | 690 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 31 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 63 ft | 191 ft | 619 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 32 | tent only nonelectric | 22 ft | 100 ft | 496 ft | ||
| Yose Creek | 33 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 22 ft | 119 ft | 503 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 34 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 75 ft | 78 ft | 431 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 35 | tent only nonelectric | 89 ft | 32 ft | 347 ft | ||
| Yose Creek | 36 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 48 ft | 154 ft | 473 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 37 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 41 ft | 185 ft | 518 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 38 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 41 ft | 205 ft | 517 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 39 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 62 ft | 266 ft | 570 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 40 | type not stated | 350 ft | 599 ft | |||
| Yose Creek | 41 | tent only nonelectric | 54 ft | 133 ft | 125 ft | ||
| Yose Creek | 42 | tent only nonelectric | 59 ft | 103 ft | 82 ft | ||
| Yose Creek | 43 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | yes | 54 ft | 160 ft | 72 ft |
| Yose Creek | 44 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 44 ft | 109 ft | 55 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 45 | tent only nonelectric | 44 ft | 153 ft | 29 ft | ||
| Yose Creek | 46 | tent only nonelectric | 82 ft | 174 ft | 109 ft | ||
| Yose Creek | 47 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 55 ft | 183 ft | 211 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 48 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 74 ft | 146 ft | 281 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 49 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 55 ft | 207 ft | 266 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 50 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 46 ft | 196 ft | 352 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 51 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 46 ft | 150 ft | 367 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 52 | tent only nonelectric | 52 ft | 186 ft | 417 ft | ||
| Yose Creek | 53 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 52 ft | 167 ft | 469 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 54 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 62 ft | 105 ft | 498 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 55 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 50 ft | 92 ft | 600 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 56 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 50 ft | 138 ft | 572 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 57 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 72 ft | 138 ft | 644 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 58 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 74 ft | 68 ft | 691 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 59 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 74 ft | 115 ft | 738 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 60 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 157 ft | 42 ft | 888 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 61 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 55 ft | 70 ft | 1,405 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 62 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 55 ft | 109 ft | 1,446 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 63 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 88 ft | 139 ft | 1,530 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 64 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 51 ft | 245 ft | 1,529 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 65 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 51 ft | 235 ft | 1,580 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 66 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 48 ft | 277 ft | 1,616 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 67 | tent only nonelectric | 48 ft | 298 ft | 1,572 ft | ||
| Yose Creek | 68 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 84 ft | 358 ft | 1,627 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 69 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 97 ft | 315 ft | 1,714 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 70 | tent only nonelectric | 66 ft | 93 ft | 1,921 ft | ||
| Yose Creek | 71 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 59 ft | 82 ft | 1,979 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 72 | tent only nonelectric | Vault Toilets listed | ||||
| Yose Creek | 73 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 50 ft | 181 ft | 2,192 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 74 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 50 ft | 131 ft | 2,187 ft | |
| Yose Creek | 75 | tent only nonelectric | 81 ft | 82 ft | 2,100 ft | ||
| Yose Creek | 76 | tent only nonelectric | 59 ft | 107 ft | 2,039 ft |
25 of 76 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Porcupine Flat CampgroundYosemite National Park · 2.2 mi
Bridalveil Creek Horse CampsitesYosemite National Park · 2.7 mi
White Wolf CampgroundYosemite National Park · 4.1 mi
Camp 4Yosemite National Park · 5.9 mi
North Pines CampgroundYosemite National Park · 6.1 mi
Lower Pines CampgroundYosemite National Park · 6.1 mi- From Lee Vining, take Hwy 120 west to the Tioga Pass entrance of Yosemite National Park (YNP). Continue onto the Tioga Pass Road for approximately 30 miles, and the entrance to Yosemite Creek campground will be on your left.
- From Manteca, take Hwy 120 east to the Big Oak Flat entrance of YNP. Continue onto the Big Oak Flat Road for approximately 8 miles to Crane Flat, where you will make a left-hand turn onto the Tioga Pass Road. Continue on the Tioga Pass Road for approxmately 14 miles, and the entrance to the campground will be on your right.
- From Yosemite Valley, follow the signs for Manteca/Hwy 120 until you reach Crane Flat, where you will make a right-hand turn onto the Tioga Pass Road. Continue on the Tioga Pass Road for approxmately 14 miles, and the entrance to the campground will be on your right.
- From Mariposa, take Hwy 140 east to the Arch Rock entrance of YNP. Continue onto the El Portal Road for approximately 4 miles until you reach the first available left-hand turn onto the Big Oak Flat Road (watch for signs to Manteca/Hwy 120). Continue on the Big Oak Flat Road until you reach Crane Flat, where you will make a right-hand turn onto the Tioga Pass Road. Continue on the Tioga Pass Road for approxmately 14 miles, and the entrance to the campground will be on your right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Yosemite Valley, CA
Typical weather
Typical July night 60°F, day 75°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
Yosemite Creek 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 →