Lower Pines at Yosemite National Park

I had time of my life in my first camping in Yosemite. This campsite was awesome.
There’s is a wooden deck goes thru Stoneman Meadow. Using this path, you can walk to Half Dome village, much shortcut. And an inspiring walk. Site 72 and 88 are the closest to the path and looked good. Though these seem to be group site.
We stayed at site 68. Not bad. I would reserve other spots if coming next time. The one closer to river probably nicer with the sound of stream. These sites are site 38, 38, and 41.
The sites didn’t look good are the ones right next to the bathroom. I assume Ppl come and go all the time and two sites are seem to be on the path to bathroom. Not so good… that’s site 64 and 66

Loved our site here! We pitched our tent here for 3 nights and absolutely loved it. We will definitely be back! The site grounds and bathroom were very clean.
Note — you do not need a locker for the bear locker. It already has one. Also, the bathrooms do not have showers.
Please do not litter and please follow the campground rules.

Easy camping, campgrounds are surrounded by beautiful landscapes. This was our first family camping trip we went Easter weekend spend 3 nights here definitely not enough time. The weather was perfect the valley was full of life in the spring saw deer in the meadows daily the snow was melting creating high water flows at all the different falls throughout the park. I definitely recommend u bring mountain bikes you can access everything on bike and its a lot of fun too. We booked DBL 2 and DBL3 sites, accommodations for up to 24 people we were able to fit my 26′ Toyhauler attached to my f-​250 and my cousins nissan armada with plenty of room at DBL3. A friend and my sister had 2 25ft motorhomes at DBL2 with plenty of room. These spots were conveniently located across the street to the RV Dump Station. Very easy to access dump n fill no long lines at all for holiday weekend. You must plan ahead and book sites beginning 1^st of ever month we booked on January 1^st and were lucky enough to get these sites as there is limited space for large RVs. We also enjoyed camp fires every night u are allowed to run a fire ²⁴⁄₇ during winter n spring months. There are plenty of restrooms throughout the park and at the camp sites, they are all clean with running water. We enjoyed the daily hikes and clean fresh air will definitely make this an annual trip in the spring.

Camped 9÷16÷15−9÷19÷15
Tent Camping (no RV)
I have now experienced camping in Yosemite Valley twice, the first time was at Camp 4 and this time it was Lower Pines Campground. Camp 4 is a totally different experience than camping at Lower Pines. Camp 4 is walk up only, no reservations, Lower Pines you have to reserve sites ahead of time.
So let’s start from the beginning. April 15, 2015 at 6:58 am. I sat at my computer and waiting for the booking window to open. They say to book 5 months in advance on
, I was booking for the dates 9÷16−19. So right at 7 am, I hit refresh and clicked on the site I wanted… I tried booking 3 nights at the same site and only got 2 of the 3, for night 3 we had to move sites, but at least they were both at the same campground. We paid $ 26/​night. We booked site #26 and site #5.
Check-​in is at noon, but if the site is vacant when you get there, you can check right in! You pull up to the kiosk (I think they open at 10 am), and they provide you with a parking pass and they go over rules and regulations with you. Then you drive to your site…
Site #26) We liked this site the better of the two. We were tent camping. Location wise, it’s pretty close to the restrooms, the restroom lights are motion censored so they do turn off eventually. But if you are sensitive to light, you might not want to stay at this site. But if you are the type to get up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, this is a perfect site for you! We had 2 picnic tables at our site. The bear box was pretty big, my best friend and I got into the bear box to take a funny pic, so I’d say you’d be able to fit 4 human bodies in it sitting up cross legged. We also slung up a hammock, there were two trees that were far enough apart from each other for it.
Site #5) I do not recommend Site #5. It’s pretty close to the entrance of the campsite. It’s like 2 to 3 sites away from the kiosk. It’s right next to a sidewalk that leads to the restroom. It’s also really close to the restrooms. Through out the entire night I got woken up by footsteps. Pros about #5 are that it has 2 picnic tables as well. The parking spot is a double wide, meaning you can probably fit two cars side by side or an RV. That’s about the only pros. Lots of bees it seemed. Also in one of the trees at the site, it had a fly bag, one of those contraptions that traps flies… no bueno.
We did Half Dome on Thursday, and this site is definitely walking distance, about ½ a mile from the Happy Isle Trail head. Which is also the trailhead for Vernall Falls and Nevada Falls. Lower Pines is also right across from Curry Village for showers. They also have a water dump toilet which was convenient for dish washing (felt bad though, I think they have to unclog it on a daily basis because no food is supposed to go in it). There is also a water bottle filling station at the restrooms. Also, right next to Lower Pines is a meadow with a wooden walkway that is very picturesque. Close to a free shuttle stop as well.

Best place on earth. Avoid the camp host. He will site you every chance he gets. We were sited for having our 5 kids with us. Our family is 7 total. We were forced to wait in line every day for an extra campsite and then we were harassed if we stayed together at night as a family.

I love nature so much and this is a nice place to visit nature, love seeing those huge trees. I gave it 4 star for the reason that I only stayed for a couple of hours and I didn’t get a chance to explore the place. The rest room is so far away…

We were able to score #46 2 days before leaving for the park after our Wilderness Permit was made unusable by the Meadow Fire. We stayed 2 nights.
Although the campground said that it was full, there were a small number of empty sites. I think you could ask last minute for openings from late cancellations. There is zero privacy in the campground and you are fairly close to each other, but since most people are in campers, not tents, it made it a little quieter.
The rangers came by to personally tell each site about the bears. While we did not see one, there was one in the campground on the first evening because everyone started yelling «bear!». If it was light, we would have seen it.
On the note of the bear issue, make sure you clean your car out before you get to the valley. Make sure there is nothing that has a scent in the car, including lotions and hand sanitizer, and look out for those french fries that are fossilized under your seats. The bear boxes are a little on the short side, so make sure your ice chest is smaller than [33″(D)x45”(W)x18”(H)] (some sites have larger lockers). Ours was too tall.
Bathrooms were clean and close. They only have cold water. There is a place to dump your dishwater (another bear bait) and a special fountain just for filling up water bottles.
I was very satisfied with this campground. For such a crowded valley, this was not a bad place to use as your base camp and then spend your waking hours out in the park.
If you have the possibility of taking your pick of sites, take a look at the map online and stay away from the sites right next to the bathrooms and the ones at the junction of the loops and the road through camp. The dumpsters are at the junctions and they are noisy with the special doors on them to keep the bears out. The bathrooms are not stinky, but they tend to be loud from all the foot traffic, and the lights stay on ²⁴⁄₇.

Iv been to Yosemite numerous times and camped at both upper and lower pines and for me it’s lower pines any day of my life. We all know it’s crowded, we all know it’s filled with kids running around screaming and biking thro the camp but we also know that this is one if the best camp grounds out there. The bathrooms are really clean, showers and pool at the curry village, one hop to the free shuttle that will take you thro the valley. Breath taking views in the valley and some of the best hikes in CA. If you are allergic to too many people in the campground — this is NOT the place for you unless you wanna camp here in December

I have camped each spring in Yosemite Valley for the past 7 years. Getting your reservation is quite a feat in itself. If your lucky when the clock strikes 7:00, the site you have picked won’t be taken by another camper with a quicker finger. Have been trying for a certain site for the past 3 years and have not been able to get it. If you don’t get your site, be quick to do a check and grab any site available. If you don’t scramble you may be left out. We prefer Lower Pines for two reasons. The campsites are generally further apart from then the sites in Upper Pines and North Pines, and the campsites in general get more sun than in Upper Pines. Spent one trip in Upper Pines and saw very little sun. We camp in May every year, so the sun is well sought after. The bathrooms are clean. The time limit on campfires is a little disheartening, especially for tent campers, I find the no campfires after 10:00 P.M. helps to keep the partying down which makes for a quiet sleep time. Curry Village has showers which I think you have to pay for as of last year. Going during the week if possible helps to avoid the horrible week-​end visitors. I go for the beauty of the surroundings and the good times had with my friends.

Stayed here in the first weekend of August. Haven’t camped in the valley since early 2010, and apparently there is a no-​wood-​fires-​outside-​5pm-​to-​10pm rule now in effect. Very sad. I can understand why, but really, one of the nice things about being in the valley is coming back late from an all day hike (like half dome or the Four Mile + Panorama Trail), cooking a simple dinner on the fire, and staying up with your fire and watching it burn to embers as the air becomes chilled and still late into the night. If you get back from a long hike during summer season, it’s already going to be about 8 pm or so, and by the time you unpack stuff, get the fire going and start cooking, it’s already 9. Basically we hadn’t even busted out the Smores when the ranger informed us of the rule. Oh well.
Pros:
— Close to Curry Village to get a shower
— Walking distance to half dome trailhead
— No bears (campground was packed which could be why)
Cons:
— Bathrooms smelly (due to the crowds)
— Wood fire limitations (no such restrictions outside the valley)
— no bears (hehe if you did want to see them)

I’ve been Yosemite a few times and this is the 2^nd time we’ve camped, this time at Lower Pines.
I came at an ‘off season” which may contribute to less crowds. I stayed for 3 nights, Sun to Tues evening and overall pretty pleased. It was a lot less crowded (but i think this may be due to the time of the yr – late Sept, the virus scare, etc). The campgrounds was nice, only about 60 camp sites. The bathrooms were kept pretty clean (not sure about high season). We experienced 2 nights that were somewhat peaceful; however a chorus of birds making quite a bit of commotion at 6am ish right around sun rise. :) Our 3^rd nite was diastrous. We had really inconsiderate neighbors right across from us who had maybe 8 – 12 ppl just hanging out and were quite loud during «quiet hours». Quite a few vehicles came in late at nite. Not sure why. Perhaps has to do with their annual Facelift project.

I love camping on the valley floor. I prefer North Pines Campgruond because it’s a little more secluded than Lower and Upper Pines Campgrounds, but I’ll take a reservation anywhere on the valley floor. Lower Pines is a nice campground but if you’re camped in one of the sites that goes along Southside Drive, the road that takes you into the campground, people parked there tend to walk through campsites to get to the bathrooms. As long as I’m talking about bathrooms, they are kept up during the spring and fall, but there are so many people in the valley during the summer it’s hard to keep up with the messes. That being said, if you can get a reservation anywhere on the valley floor, take it!

Despite numerous trips to Yosemite over the years, I had never had the experience of camping on the valley floor. I just never had planned far enough in advance. This year I decided that was where I was going to spend my birthday, and I planned accordingly. I emphasize planning because that is the only way you will get to camp here. As Christina and Micaela have both mentioned, getting reservations is extremely difficult, and involves you getting up at dawn on a Saturday morning five months in advance to click madly away at your computer hoping for the best. When we got our reservations, all campsites were sold out in three minutes.
But if you can deal with that hassle, the rewards are amazing. There really aren’t any bad spots here. Some have better views than others, but all are spacious and comfortable. The only complaint we had was the size of the bear lockers. They are slowly replacing all of the older, smaller lockers with newer, bigger ones, but if you are going to camp here, make sure and look up on their web-​site to verify the dimensions of the locker at your specific site. Otherwise, you may end up with an ice cooler too big for your locker.
The bathrooms were well-​maintained and kept clean and the rangers were friendly. The campfire restriction (campfires are only allowed between 5 and 10pm), although it bothers many people, is necessary and fair.
I was just happy as could be at this campground… I will definitely try to come back here in the future.

I don’t understand why there are so many reviews for Upper Pines but no one has reviewed Lower Pines.
Here is how Yosemite campsite reservations work. Reservations are required from March to November (I’ve actually camped in December– good luck finding your actual campsite amidst the snow). Reservations are made up to 5 months in advance on the 15^th of each month at 7am PST.
I’m usually at work around 7ish but it was a much, more difficult task to convince one of my friends to get up & help me reserve a campsite. Prior to 7am, make sure you already have an account at
. I open a few windows with said website, I call to make sure my friend is awake & online, & I pull up my list of desired campsites (make sure you have decided on your dates).
Once the clock strikes 7am, everything happens pretty quickly. I believe all of the sites were gone by 7:11am. I ended up only being able to book an Upper Pines site but since I accidentally picked a holiday weekend, I paid the $ 10 cancellation fee.
Once all of the sites are filled, the spacious handicapped site magically becomes available. This is how J came to book Lower Pines’ #18 campsite. The elevation is 4000′ & the fee is $ 20/​night (with up to 6 people per campsite). Here’s a map to the 60 campsites in Lower Pines:

I’m not a fan of the RVs but #18 is incredibly spacious, right beside the Merced River, & not too far (or too close) to the restroom. It’s also pretty close to the ampitheater, which is good if you plan to bring kids. Unlike at Whitney Portal (which seems to have no set hours), Yosemite visitors are good about abiding by the campfire hours– which reduces pollution & allows for people to have a smoke-​free night of sleep.
My friends & I hiked Half Dome & were able to walk to the trailhead. I don’t think I’ve ever stayed at North or Upper Pines, but online reviews say Lower Pines was the best. I was quite pleased.