Upper Pines Campground

Nice campground, friendly rangers

Cant get much better, close to curry village, directly next to a shuttle stop and multiple trails. We took our dog with us to mirror lake and the trail head is a short walk from the campground. Bathrooms were clean.

Yosemite Valley is beyond description--pictures and words do not do it justice. The overlook views, the many waterfalls, the forest and meadow floor, and the almost incomprehensible half-mile high sheer valley walls . . . I'm trying and failing at describing the experience.

We camped in February, when the only valley camping area open is Upper Pines. Winter camping is first come-first served. Incredible setting amidst the pines with Glacier Point towering in the south direction and numerous peaks to the east and north.

Wonderful bikepath system, fascinating history, impressive Ahwahnee Lodge (a must visit!) and a very well-stocked store and cafeterias. Truly a vacation getaway.

Camp sites at Upper Pines are well-spaced and clean bathrooms are everywhere. Nice feature: a waste-water facility at the bathrooms makes emptying portable waste water tanks easy. No electric or water hookups in the valley.

There are no negatives about this campground or about Yosemite other than the summer crowds and summer afternoon heat. Avoid both and come and enjoy during the off season!

We stayed here right after a snow storm and as we didn't have chains, had to delay our trip by a day. The NPS staff was so great, helping us find an alternate place to stay and moving our reservations. The campground is clean, beautiful, sites are easy to access. In addition to the water fill and dump station, each section had a dumpster and recycling center. Only complaints? There is no soap in the bathrooms (bears?) and they allow generators but luckily only in two hour increments during the day. No AT&T cell service in our site but you could get it in various parts of the park, even a bar or two in the campground for sending receiving texts.

For those who have never been, you don't need a car in Yosemite-buses circle around to all the trail heads and amenities. There are however several homes easy walking distance from the campground. All around great place to camp.

Yosemite Valley is simply the most stunning place to camp we've ever been. Nothing comes close. On top of that, there is way more to do than we could possibly do in the one week maximum stay. Absolutely a fantastic experience that I highly recommend for every family.

While we were here in early August, staying in the valley and getting around by bike is the way to go for sure. The traffic is insane, and even the shuttles are crowded and slow. I can't imagine staying somewhere outside the valley and trying to commute in.

We stayed in Upper Pines campground, though I couldn't find much difference between it and Lower or North Pines. Spaces were spacious, the setting was beyond gorgeous, and of course the location simply cannot be beat.

Still, I don't care how nice it is. Dry camping with nasty bathrooms, no hand soap, and far away $5/person showers is just never getting five stars from me, no matter how amazing the location. I would really like to see NPS invest in running electric to at least some loops, or loosen up the generator hour restrictions, so we could run AC during the heat of the afternoon. And clean the bathrooms more often--yuck.

Fortunately, we solved the showers problem by stopping by the nearby (free) Curry Village shower buildings and asking around for the door code. Works like a charm!

This is a hard camgpround to rate. It's not particularly clean or quiet. The sites are all different sizes and right on top of one another. But of course it's reasonably priced and right in the middle of Yosemite Valley, so it's got that going for it! Easily walkable to Half Dome Village (nee Curry) where you can rent bikes and get wherever else you want to go. Also a good camping spot for the Half Dome hike.

Upper Pines and the the rest of the Pines campgrounds in Yosemite Valley are 3 star campgrounds in a 5 star location.

The sites are tighter than most public parks and the etiquette of most campers is lacking, if you have a spot near a restroom you’ll have people cutting through your site day and night. Many campers ran loud generators during the generator hour windows, and occasionally outside of them as well.

Yosemite Valley overall is very convenient and staying at Upper Pines you are a half mile walk to the Happy Isles Trailhead and Half Dome Village. With a shortcut through North Pines campground you’re just over a mile stroll to the Majestic Yosemite Hotel for a cocktail.

We’d stay here again as the Valley location makes up for the downsides.

Our solar panel struggled to keep up as the beautiful trees block most of the sun from coming through.

Park in your spot and bring bikes. Great trip for myself the wife and our 6yo. Most campers were respectful, there are 3 times for generators and if you see a rental RV it is a pretty safe bet it will be running. We saw a bear, a few deer, a fox, snakes, and many squirrels and chipmunks. Water running all around the camp and half dome view from the site.

The crowds are huge but they do a great job managing the numbers. The dump station was odd, potable water station then dump at the next stop. The ranger was super cool with out kid and gave him a Jr Ranger sticker and even asked about it the next day.

Flush toilet / water available / bathroom sink / no shower / table / fire pit / easy access / high shade.

On early June the campground was always full until a long time…. But you can be lucky like us, and find a site for 3 nights at the least moment on recreation.com website. Don't be desperated, and stay on the reservation campground page on your phone, and refresh often to check… around 9:00 on the morning, it seems they cancel some reservations. If not, there is the lotery: we play twice and we lost twice (10$ each time).

The campground has a super nice location: on the Yosemite Valley, we can forget your car and take the shuttle to go to trails heads, on the "village" to Visitor Center or grocery. There are amazing trails, on early June waterfalls were SO BIG, I never seem that! Be aware, you can be totally wet, even if you are on the trail.

The campground is big but nice and quiet. It's organised as a daisy, which helps to limit the feeling of "overpopulation". Our site (N°210) was super great because it was at the end of a loop: it was quiet and we felt as sleeping on the forest. Sanitaries were clean, with flush toilet and bathroom sink. There is no showers, but we can - discreetly - take a shower at the "Curry Village" which is a tent complex with sanitaries blocks "open to everyone" (not really but you don't need special access pass).

In terms of number of campground sites and number of tourists, it's really a chance to have the opportunity to sleep on the valley. The price is totally correct (26$), I hope it will be stay like that! So, reserve as soon as possible, and enjoy this beautiful wild area!

We were in a pickup camper, not another style of RV, nor in a tent. Tent camping would be ok, but this campground is definitely not friendly to bigger RVs - I had to help someone with a travel trailer back into the space across from us. The sites work well enough for our camper, and they seemed to work fine for smaller motorhomes, too.

So here is my take on this campground. Convenient? Incredibly so - right in the heart of the beautiful Yosemite valley. HOWEVER, many of the sites are very close to one another, especially in the centers of the loops. So privacy is non-existent.

But the bigger issue for site 193, and others like it that adjoin the restrooms, is that everyone and their brother walks through your site to use the restroom. And I do mean right through the site. There are no defined paths to the restroom, and people are clueless and don't even attempt to respect your site. We had so many people walk between our camper and our picnic table - no joke - as they walked to the bathrooms. And of course this goes on all day and night. And this particular site, #193, also has a bear-proof garbage bin in the front. The hinges are squeaky and the doors loud when dropped closed, so when we were at the site we got a lot of noise from that as well.

Would we stay in one of the pines campgrounds again? Probably, as you can't beat the location. However, you couldn't pay us to stay in another site next to the restrooms.

One last comment. Our trip here was somewhat impromptu and was scheduled about a month in advance. The campgrounds all showed as full, and only by checking every day for cancellations were we able to secure a reservation. However, many of the sites, while reserved, were never used. We talked to the rangers and this is apparently a significant problem - people reserve a site then don't show up. The park gets paid, but I can only imagine how many people don't make the trek because they can't get a reservation. Maybe this helps keep down the crowds, but in the end it is very unfair to those folks who would come if they could get a reservation. So, if you have a reservation and can't make it, do the honorable thing and cancel so that someone else can enjoy Yosemite.