Dimond O Campground

We stayed here for a almost a week while visiting Yosemite National Park. We live full-time in our 30 foot Keystone Laredo fifth wheel and work on the road. Like most full-timers, we do not make reservations ahead of time as we typically stay in first come first serve spots and cannot plan far enough ahead. When we decided to stop by Yosemite, it became clear that there were limited first come first serve options. There are a few National Park campgrounds that open up for first come first serve later in the summer, but not in May/June when we were visiting and everything was already reserved.

Dimond O has around 10 sites left for first come first serve (all others were reserved). It is $26/night for dry camping. They have potable water (but don't allow RV fillups) and out toilets. That is it. We managed with our solar but there are a lot of trees. The positives: the campground is very pretty set in the pines and very close to the Yosemite park boundaries. The Hetch Hetchy entrance is a few miles down the road and it takes about 1 hour to drive to Yosemite Valley through the other close by entrance.

We came in through highway 120 from Fresno (the recommended route). The drive was very stressful. There are sharp mountain switchbacks and climbing coming through Mocassin. Once you turn off 120 on Evergreen Road, the drive is pretty rough. We wouldn't take our fifth wheel down it again. It has tight turns on a road that can barely fit oncoming traffic in some points. It also has steep dips and we dragged out at least once. Even when not pulling the camper, this 5 mile drive takes 15-20 minutes to reach the main highway.

Most of the sites in the campground could not fit a rig of our size. Luckily, there was a double site near the entrance that we could back into (although our truck could not fit in our space). We have ATT and did not have signal at all in the park. We could drive 1 mile up the road to Evergreen Lodge for slow WiFi. Or, if we drove the 5 miles back up to highway 120, we could get cell service and fast free WiFi at Rush Creek Lodge. This is also a Yarts shuttle stop which will take you into Yosemite for an affordable cost (although times are limited).

Overall, we ended up here because we listened to the advice of the Groveland District Ranger who said the road was perfectly fine for our rig. It certainly wasn't ideal for full-timers considering the high expense, lack of service, and extremely stressful drive. But, I'm not aware of any better options close by. Next time, we would try to stay on the other side of the park near El Portal. We had attempted to find something there on this stay, but the only RV Park would not return our calls. Ultimately, it worked out for our needs. I would not recommend the campground for larger rigs. It would work well for small travel trailers or tent camping.

Showed up to Yosemite with no reservations to find it all full. We were directed to this camp site by one of the rangers and to our surprise it was great!

We showed up looking for enough space to accommodate 12 people but it was full as well.

The staff was great and they helped us out, all we had to do was wait for a big group that was leaving by mid day. Since we were the first group there that morning they reserved it for us.

There is a path to a river which was really nice and the sound of the river running at night made staying there so much nicer.

Definitely coming back (with reservations)

Friends were staying down the road at Evergreen Lodge so we tried our luck at a first come/first serve site. Showed up Friday morning at 9:05 am and had several options! We chose site 7 as it was very very flat (compared to many others) and had a great picnic area out back. We stayed here for two nights and would bounce over to Evergreen to use their WiFi and visit friends.

Note: there is zero AT&T or Verizon cell service here or anywhere leading up to it. Spotty 1-bar 3G on a good day at Evergreen. Cell boosters won’t work here as there’s nothing to even grab onto.

But we would ABSOLUTELY stay here again - you’re about 8 minutes (without traffic) from the Yosemite gates. It’s an awesome jumping off point!

We camped here two nights.
We could hear bear footsteps outside our tent both nights.
On the first night bears bothered and took things from our neighbors camped on our right side. The second night bears bothered and took things from our neighbors camping on our left side.
It is extremely important to use the bear proof boxes at each campsite.
We also watched the bears open and raid the campsite garbage cans.
The camp host and hostess were extremely helpful and were the nicest people ever! We really enjoyed meeting and visiting them.
We will definitely camp here again.

The main draw here is access to Yosemite. You are 30 minutes from Hetch Hetchy and from the Big Oak Flat entrance. But we also enjoyed the nearby Middle Fork stream. You can access the water from a short trail that runs down from the campground or drive less than 5 minutes to the day use area. Great way to cool off!

Our site was large and private. There seems to be good space and foliage between most sites. Very nice fire pit and they thoughtfully included a large bottle of water to douse your fire. No hookups. There are water spigots throughout the park but I don’t think you’re allowed to fill your tank. We had plenty of sun and were able to use our solar panels.

Our experience in the campground wasn’t typical since the Oak Fire has been disruptive. All of the spots that were available for reservations were booked, but most were empty. On Saturday night almost all the FCFS were taken, but many were available again by lunch the next day. This led to a very quiet experience - at least at first - we could hear eagles and other birds. But I think the camp hosts had a problem with their electricity - their generator was running constantly on our second day. Very noisy and there don’t seem to be set generator hours.

The road coming in isn’t in great condition. We took it slow but many people were flying by.

No AT&T or Verizon service for 30 minutes in either direction.

Dimond O is a US Forest Service campground on the edge of Yosemite. Closest camping access to Hetch-Hetchy area. About 1 hour to Yosemite Valley and about 45 minutes to Olmsted Point on the Tioga Road. Access road goes through forest that was heavily impacted by Rim Fire and also through some ranch land with plenty of cows. Take it slow.

Most sites were easily accessed and fairly level. Also, most are spacious and shaded. In October, the flow in the river is pretty low but I imagine it would be great in the spring. Only vault toilets and no showers. Campground was very quiet, only about 1/2 full at the busiest night. Very few generators so was quiet in the evenings.

Would definitely consider staying here again as it is very peaceful and out of the fray of all of the busy, tight Yosemite spots.

No cell service but you can drive 2 miles up the road to Evergreen Lodge and sit at their picnic tables and get on the wi-fi.