North Pines Campground

Just a couple weeks prior to our visit we managed to get a cancellation for two nights at one site, then the next night at a different one. The sites are in a pine forest and close together with no privacy. We had a couple hours of sun for the solar panels and it was adequate to keep our batteries charged for the three days we were there. As is typical of national parks there are no hookups but there are flush toilets in the bathrooms and no showers. Campfires are limited to 5-10pm so at least there isn't smoke all day long. Generator hours are 7-9, 12-2 and 5-7, but we heard very little generator noise.

Although the reservation site says RVs up to 40 feet can be accommodated, we only saw a couple longer than our 30'. The roads through the campground are narrow and tight among the trees so it would be tough to drive a large motorhome or 5th wheel through it.

But the reason we were there was to be in the middle of Yosemite Valley, and for that reason alone it is worth being there. We were able to walk or bike to trailheads or the Village. May is a great time to stay as there were not a lot of children and the waterfalls were beautiful.

Regular rate is $26 but we paid $13 with the senior pass. We had one bar of Verizon 3G but even with the booster we could not get on the internet. Something came up that we needed access to our email so we paid $5.95 at the lodge for 24 hours of wifi but it was very slow.

The only complaint was the smell from the stables when the wind is just right. But if you stay in a high number spot, you'll reduce your chances of smelling it. This was super convenient to bike the path (or walk it) to everything in the valley. There is a shuttle bus stop very nearby too.

Maybe because it was our first trip here biased our rating, but I can't imagine a more perfect spot in this country. We walked about 7 miles the first afternoon/evening just gawking in awe and taking in the surroundings. Sure there are other campers, but we made friends and even had a couple of different folks over to eat dinner. It is tight but we got our 37' trailer in there and loved the convenience of staying in the park. Wake up and hop on the bus or bicycle or drive if you want. Make sure and hike though. The site was plenty large and double wide so we could park the truck. You can get potable water and dump at the Upper Pines campground. Aramark is the new park manager an for now some things aren't back up and running like the kennel and stable. We stayed eight nights and hated to leave at the end. Bathrooms and showers were good given the crowds (free park admission so weekend was crowded).

It's busy, noisy, smokey, tight and it's perfect. Oh, and now with LTE!

North Pines is surrounded by a creek on one side and the Merced river on the other. It's a beautiful walk within the valley to Yosemite Falls, along the Merced River, Yosemite and Half Dome Village, Mirror Lake and the Mist Trailhead. Buses do run to all these locations as well but we enjoyed our walks which allowed us to see two bears.

We arrived on a Saturday, not the best idea as it took us about an hour to go two miles on our way into the valley but it's the best option we had as non-planners to happened to pick up a cancellation of three nights.

The sites are fairly large, depending on where your neighbor decides to pitch their tents. There aren't really any boundaries to the sites but everyone seemed respectful in setting up their camp. However, people do cut through campsites a lot.

I found the recreation.gov to be pretty conservative in their max sizes for the sites. However, I would still not recommend choosing a site that is shorter by a foot or two on a first trip here. Some sites have room for overhang and some don't. I think there are 5 sites listed for our size and in North Pines, we felt we could have managed in about 15 or 20. We walked the campground noting sites we could pick next time and noticed plenty of others doing the same thing.

It also has Verizon LTE, at superfast speeds, unboosted! We walked around the campground and at all sites, we had a reliable 8-15 MBPS down.

We also walked Lower Pines which had even faster speeds. Upper Pines still had no unboosted cell signal to speak of.

Three nights was definitely not enough for Yosemite so we'll be trying our luck in the fall when sites are first come first serve now that we have a few more sites we feel we can fit into.

Smaller of the three main Valley CGs.
No services.
Sites along the Merced River offer some white noise to block out the noise of other campers. Fire rings and bear boxes at each site. Be sure to use the bear box, Rangers patrol regularly and will confiscate food left out.
Reservations are needed and usually booked up the day they become available. Diligent planning is highly advised.

We clicked at the exact moment the spots became available 5 months in advance and still ended up floundering to get a spot. All of the spots were completely gone in about 5 minutes, so be ready or hope for a cancellation.

The campground has no hookups but does have drinking water and flush toilets available. There are showers but they are half a mile to a mile away- so you either have to drive, hike, bike or take a shuttle to shower. There are also a lot of trees so halfway through our stay we had to drive and park in a day use area to get some sun on our solar panels to recharge.

There are bears in the area and bear lockers at every campsite, there was a bear in the campground during our stay because somebody left food out, don't be that person.

Verizon worked great at that campground and throughout the whole valley area. AT&T works great in the valley village and valley lodge area- not so much as the campground or half dome village.

Dates: 9/29/18-10/6/18

We spent a heavenly week camping in the heart of Yosemite Valley, right at the end of September/beginning of October! We were fortunate to have had fairly good weather at the time and enjoyed our stay there tremendously. Our days were filled with walks into Half Dome Village, Yosemite Village, to the falls, and just general exploring of the park.

Yosemite National Park opens up reservations to their campgrounds every four months on the 15th and so back in April, we sat ready at our computers and started clicking furiously for time slots and barely managed to get a week in North Pines Campground! There are only a few spots that can accommodate a 30’ trailer so we were very fortunate to have snagged a spot.

If you’ve never camped in Yosemite, I’d highly recommend it! There’s so much to do in this beautiful park, and to be able to stay there and walk out to its natural beauty every morning is an experience of a lifetime. The campgrounds get booked out within just several minutes of opening up for reservations so you’ll need to sit ready at your computer and start clicking as soon as it’s time. There’s a schedule of when reservations open up on their website.

All the campgrounds are dry camping only (no hookups), but there are buildings with flush toilets and potable water as well as vault toilets available.

For showers, you have to make a trek into either Half Dome Village or Housekeeping Camp. At the end of our stay, we drove over to Upper Pines Campground to dump our tanks.

Site 323 is one of the few RV spots in North Pines Campground that’s long enough to accommodate our 30’ trailer. It took some maneuvering and was a bit of a tight squeeze to back Le Twinkie in, but we managed without incident!

The sites have picnic tables, fire pits with grills and bear boxes. Upon checking in, you’re warned of 🐻 black bears in the area that will roam the campgrounds in search of food, so please be very diligent about storing food and anything with a scent in the bear box especially if you’re tent camping. Even things from your car need to be stored in the bear box if it has a scent to it. Lotions, car air fresheners, gum, etc. included! On one of the last days of our trip, there was a bear that had come into the campground, attracted to the smell of food that had been left out by some campers and had to be scared out of a tree it had climbed up.

Keeping food stored away properly isn’t just for the safety of humans, but also for the bears. There’s a 3 strike policy for bears who have invaded campsites and eaten human food. Each time they come in, they build a taste for human food and will get more and more aggressive to get at it. After 3 times, rangers have to put the bear down… 😢

There are also a lot of pine trees in the campground which drip sap. After the first day, our truck and trailer were covered with sap drippings! 😫 Thankfully it washed away fairly cleanly with the rain…

Data speeds were unusable in the campground and at Half Dome Village, even with 2 bars of Verizon LTE and 1 bar of AT&T LTE. There's supposed to be wifi throughout the park but for some reason, we could never connect to it. Data speeds were pretty decent in Yosemite Village however. Good thing we were there on vacation and didn't need to be connected for work!

Overall, camping in Yosemite was a dream and we'll be planning for annual trips!

BLOG POST: https://www.travelswithletwinkie.com/blog/2018/10/9/yosemite-national-park-dry-camping-at-north-pines-campground

INSTAGRAM: @le_twinkie

Stayed in April 2021. Even with COVID regulations blocking off about half the sites, it felt a little crowded as sites are very close together. Easy to use the dump at Upper Pines. Bathrooms clean. Love that there is a little propane canister can - I never know where to dispose of those!

The generator rules are VERY strict which was a little annoying as my site was in the trees so solar wasn't really an option. The camp host will come over if you are running it two minutes after the two hour window.

I went here expecting some low amount of Verizon signal based on other reviews but there was NOTHING for me. I had to drive over to the meadow parking to get signal for work.

Very lucky to get a site this year! They were all gone within 5 minutes when I logged on at 7am on site release day.

Narrow space so we didn't camp with our RV but we did tent camp. There were smaller RVs there and plenty of camper vans. The sites are spacious and in the pines. Great location in the valley. Can walk everywhere or bike everywhere in the valley. AT&T service occasionally let a text go through but completely unreliable. No wifi. We had to put on quite a bit of bug spray at night and early in the morning, but other than that the bugs weren't an issue.

VERY difficult to book. We were online the second reservations opened, but weren’t able to get a spot. (We also have a longer rig so there were a limited number of spots for us to choose from in the first place.) But we got lucky and were able to snag a cancellation.

It’s worth it though! The Yosemite shuttle stops nearby and you are walking distance to some of the best hikes in the park. The river runs by the campsite and is a good place to cool off. You can look up and see the beautiful granite cliffs.

However, the sites are small and jammed in close together. Not much privacy. For us, the campground was just a place to eat and sleep - we spent all our time exploring the park instead of hanging out in the campsite.

The campground was pretty quiet. But I should note that our experience was not typical. Many sites were empty because of the Oak Fire.

It’s a bit tricky navigating the valley with a 30 ft tow behind. I definitely wish we were in something smaller!

Verizon: enough that I could make a call and send a text, but not able to stream. However, speeds were very good around the visitors center even in the middle of the day.
AT&T: sometimes we could get a bar, sometimes we had nothing