Yousemite without a reservation?

[daleyocum]

Thanks for all the tips. Those hikes sound great. Here’s our current plan for you all to poke holes in or enhance.

Well reserve for a few nights at the Yosemite Lakes private RV park so we have a place when we arrive mid afternoon. The next day (probably a Monday) assuming White Wolf or Tuolumne is open, we’ll go there first thing, sans trailer, and see what we can get. If we get a spot, we’ll explore Yosemite for the rest of the day and stay outside the park that night. We’ll move inside the next morning.

Once inside the park we’ll drive down to the valley floor mornings and use our folding moutain bikes to get around. Traffic sounds crazy!

Anyone with a better idea?

Can you take folding bikes on the shuttles? Is there a reason to?

[McDave]

I don't recall seeing anyone bringing bikes on the shuttle busses. They are sometimes pretty full, standing room only, and it might be difficult. However, there are bike paths all throughout The Valley, which is relatively flat. It's not that strenuous to bike wherever you want to go, so bikes are a good alternative to riding the shuttle busses. Plus you can get to places on bikes that the shuttle busses don't go, like Bridle Vail Falls. Just bring locks and chains to secure your bikes when you're away from them.

Yosemite Lakes RV Park is a great place to stay. One night we were planning to stay near Lee Vining, but we heard that the Park would close that night due to a storm. We didn't know how long the storm would last, and didn't want to be stuck on the East side, so we headed up Tioga Pass in the gathering dusk and storm. We were the last vehicle they allowed in before closing the pass. We rolled through Tuolumne Meadows with the snow coming down, but not really sticking to the road yet, and were glad when we got a little lower down and the snow turned to rain. All the Park campgrounds we passed were full, so we rolled right on through the Park, and the first campground we came to outside the park was Yosemite Lakes, about 8 PM. I was very tired, as we had been rolling since Caliente, NV, that morning, and I was so happy to get a spot at Yosemite Lakes. It is located in a small valley far enough away from Hwy 120 that it is very quiet and secluded. The management was very nice. If it were me, I would stay there for my whole trip to Yosemite and just drive in during the day.

[daleyocum]

If it were me, I would stay there for my whole trip to Yosemite and just drive in during the day.

Interesting idea to just stay outside. We were trying to avoid the long lines getting into the park in the morning by staying at White Wolf but maybe we don’t understand that traffic pattern. From what I saw from Google Earth it looked like Yosemite Lakes is packed pretty densely and a much of it is just a gravel lot with hookups. Maybe I’m not looking at the right section of it, though.

[McDave]

Yosemite Lakes is about as densely packed as the typical KOA, and also has the same typically well maintained pads. However, the difference between Yosemite Lakes and the typical KOA is that there is nothing in the immediate vicinity of Yosemite Lakes other than beautiful trees and hills. If anything, the campsites in Yosemite are even more tightly packed than Yosemite Lakes, and less well maintained.

If you were to decide to stay at Yosemite Lakes, I would recommend that you not try to drive into the park at 9 or 10 AM, as there is likely to be a line of cars at the gate. If you get there early in the morning, with plans to have breakfast somewhere in Yosemite, you should be fine.

So the trade off is: should you waste part of a day trying to find accommodations in the park, or should you get up earlier than you might want to to avoid a line at the gate? If you are an early morning person anyway, it is a no-brainer, but if not, then you have a decision to make.