Posted by jeff miller on February 23, 2012 at 1:38 PM
Hi Guys, I'm a Ga.boy heading to Yosemite the 2nd week in May. I've already secured camping in the park, but looking for a camp site outside of the park (west) for one night. Any suggestions? Thanks for help with this!
Posted by Lon Overacker on February 23, 2012 at 5:56 PM
Jeff, Yosemite is of course beautiful in the spring. Hard to say what the waterfalls will be like, certainly nothing compared to last year. There is very little snow pack, I think 25% of normal? or there abouts.
Camping outside the park heading west you have a few choices. Highway 120, there's Indian Flat RV park (with tent camping) Dry Gulch and Dirt Flat are the only other ones. They are all on the Merced. I wouldn't call any of those great camping spots, but if you're just looking for a place to crash, those are the choices. I do HIGHLY recommend you spend a day in the Merced River canyon on hw 140. Between the park entrance and Bryceburg, lots of scenic and river photography to be had including interesting and photogenic rock and geology. I would recommend crossing over the Merced in El Portal at "Foresta" road and then turn west on "Incline" (that's actually where Dry Gulch and Dirt Flat CG are) But you can drive/walk along the river and not be next to the highway.
There are also lots of campgrounds of highway 120 heading towards Groveland. I'm less familiar with those, but I would recommend going to Recreation.gov and search for campgrounds near Yosemite. Another site I just found is camping-usa.com
Have a great trip. I'm hoping to be there the first week in May, but haven't secured any camping yet...
Lon
Posted by jeff miller on February 24, 2012 at 9:56 PM
Thanks Lon, all sound like good suggestions. I'll give 'em a look. Merced Canyon sounds great we'll definitely put that on our agenda.
Posted by Paul Duval on March 23, 2012 at 12:21 AM
Once again our weird weather strikes. For two weekends in a row now there's a winter storm in the Sierra late ones. The one last week and weekend dumped a ton of new snow in the high country. Still there's allot of deficit to make up, but there will be water especially in May. Have a great time.
Paul
Posted by jeff miller on March 26, 2012 at 9:06 AM
Thanks for the update Paul. Can't wait to get out there.
Discussion
5 repliesCamping outside the park heading west you have a few choices. Highway 120, there's Indian Flat RV park (with tent camping) Dry Gulch and Dirt Flat are the only other ones. They are all on the Merced. I wouldn't call any of those great camping spots, but if you're just looking for a place to crash, those are the choices. I do HIGHLY recommend you spend a day in the Merced River canyon on hw 140. Between the park entrance and Bryceburg, lots of scenic and river photography to be had including interesting and photogenic rock and geology. I would recommend crossing over the Merced in El Portal at "Foresta" road and then turn west on "Incline" (that's actually where Dry Gulch and Dirt Flat CG are) But you can drive/walk along the river and not be next to the highway.
There are also lots of campgrounds of highway 120 heading towards Groveland. I'm less familiar with those, but I would recommend going to Recreation.gov and search for campgrounds near Yosemite. Another site I just found is camping-usa.com
Have a great trip. I'm hoping to be there the first week in May, but haven't secured any camping yet...
Lon
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=The+Photographer's+Guide+to+Yosemite&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&oe=&rlz=1I7GGLL_en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=5429267522977671292&sa=X&ei=1gtVT-icJoHTiAKrxPRn&ved=0CEwQ8wIwAg#
Have a great time!
Sandy
Paul