Tuolumne Meadows Campground Yosemite

We camped for 2 nights here. It is a really nice campground. The bathrooms are clean. No showers. Ample room in the bear-​box. The campsite we had was very spacious (I believe we were E12?). We were here in late August 2015. Since this campground is ~8,000 ft up, it is much cooler than the valley, which is about an hour drive. It was about 80 degrees during the day and (what felt like) 35 degrees at night, so bundle up (the valley hit 95 degrees and pretty hot)! The hikes around here great! It seemed this campground was away from the hustle and bustle and very quiet. We even had a part of the John Muir Trail right behind our campsite (rarely saw people hiking it, so still very private). I highly recommend this campground!

Tuolumne Meadows Campground; gorgeous location in the Tuolumne Meadows area, with the Tuolumne River running adjacent to the campground. This is the heart of Yosemite hiking country, with scores of trails starting within 10 miles or so of this campground. Take the short, steep hike up to May Lake, or into Cathedral Lakes, or just along the meandering river in the meadows area.
The campground itself, with 300 sites, offers nice, shady campsites. It does show a lack of maintenance from our federal friends, with roads that haven’t been repaved for about 30 years, and bathrooms, with water and flush toilets, needing some updating — but clean and serviceable. Evening campfire talks, with Rangers who do a good job of explaining the history, fun and excitement of Yosemite.
If you have an extra day, take Evergreen Road into the Hetch Hetchy valley to O’Shaughnessy dam — and see the sister valley to Yosemite that was dammed and flooded 100 years ago.

PROS
Nice location, Tenaya Lake nearby is awesome, the meadows are gorgeous and there are a few domes in the vicinity. The Grill and Visitor Center are very nice and worth a visit. We stayed 3 nights in one of the group sites. The site was decent, could fit 15 – 20 people but not 30 as is stated on the reservations site.
CONS
Overall the condition of the campground is below average. Bathrooms are old and get clogged up easily (at least once or twice a day), there is no light in the bathrooms so make sure you bring flashlights and headlights with you. The entire campground has potholes everywhere and when rain came the road was full of muddy potholes.
The bear boxes at our site where quite small and older than bear boxes I’ve seen in other campgrounds. We were vigilant about keeping our food in the bear box and we made sure no food was left outside at all times. However, when we woke up in the morning and started preparing breakfast, I noticed that some of our snacks that were stored in packages or ziplock bags overnight in the bear box had tiny holes as if a critter had chewed on them. I also noticed droppings in various bags that were stored in the same bear box. We checked all the bear boxes and noticed that some of them had a small hole completely uncovered, the hole is small (¾″) but large enough to let a mouse through. I was bummed because I had to throw away a bunch of snacks. But most of all I was worried about Hantavirus. All around the bathrooms you see signs about Hantavirus warnings and the place where it’s supposed to be the safest place to store food proved to be unsafe. When we reported that to the Camp Host he said that some bear boxes have these holes and some don’t. He told us he is a volunteer and will report this to the rangers. I am quite disappointed because of that incident. This is such an easy fix. The rangers could cover the holes in all these bear boxes or at least bring this to campers’ attention so upon arrival they know to cover the holes somehow. Exposing campers to mice who might be carriers of Hantavirus is not to be taken lightly.

I stayed one night at backpackers campgound in Tuolumne Meadow during my John Muir Trail backpacking. Backpacker campsites are first-​come first-​served, but I arrived here around 6 p.m., so all sites were occupied. So I asked one site and asked if it was okay to share. They welcomed me. Actually the site was shared by 2 groups. A couple in late 50 or 60s from Canada doing JMT, a lady who is a section hiker of JMT. They are super nice and friendly. The couple have been camping in Hokkaido, Japan and we talked about Japan. The other lady and I were solo female backpakers, so we immediately got a sense of camaraderie. What a memorable campground.

Nice campground. Elevation is high so be prepared, you are at over 8,000 ft. Mix of dirt and paved road. Restrooms are clean and stocked but they don’t have lights so you have to supply your own when it gets dark.
Everything must be stored in your site bear box so pack well. Beautiful scenery and friendly campers. We saw deer but no other wildlife. No showers so bring stuff to dry bathe. Gas station and store close by. Trout in the rivers. There are a lot of hiking trails and horseback trails.
This campground is smack dab in the heart of bear country, sadly we didn’t see one for the four days we were there. Marmots inhabit the meadows and look like a cross between a beaver and a squirrel. They will chew anything so be careful… this includes hoses and wire on your car. They do sell chicken wire to keep them out if your in their area.

First come, first serve or by reservation, this campground is marvelous in location, close to numerous Sierra high country hikes in Yosemite. Walk from camp any time from sunrise to sunset, follow the Tuolumne River pouring over rocks and giant boulders, in either direction, experience lots of deer, yellow belly marmot, chickadee singing, the Clark Nutcracker carrying the white bark pine seeds, wild flowers and polished domes. So much wilderness to explore. Lembert and Pot Hole domes are near by. Be sure to take the Ranger lead hikes, all are informative and fascinating.
Location, location, location – makes this campground exceptional at elevation 8,000 feet approximate among big lodgepole pines. There are no hook ups. Tents and RV/​trailer friendly. Only complaint is that the interior roads though camp and up to camp sites are dirt and gravel, and the majority of campers seem to be in a hurry always, driving too fast for being on a vacation, stirring up lots of dust – so our red truck and silver Airstream trailer is covered in a fine dust. Smoke, smoke, smoke – lot’s of campfires!

We stayed here for our family reunion in mid-​July. Since we were over six people we stayed in the group campsite. What a joke. No trailers or campers allowed in group campsites for some brilliant reason, though the rest of the grounds were filled with them.
It’s almost as if Yosemite is inconvenienced by having campers. It certainly feels like they are trying to make you so uncomfortable that you want to leave.
Our area had one bathroom for probably 100 plus people. One urinal, one stall, one water spigot, no soap. The bear thing is a major pain. Bear boxes where you have to put everything except your pajamas in every night. We had a baby so we had to go open the bear box in the middle of the night to get formula.
The group sites are small with not enough space for the 30 people they said you could have. Maybe 10 – 15 would fit well. The campsite is very crowded.
It rained three days of our stay and the site basically became a river. We sent two cars to the valley to the laundromat to dry all the clothes and sleeping bags. Facilities in Tuolumne Meadows are minimalist. No showers, but we found the TM Lodge and their bathroom with showers. So I sneaked into those to regain a semblance of humanity. The land line and cell service was knocked out by a rockslide so you had to drive to the Valley or almost Lee Vining to get service.
I have camped a lot, and there are certain amenities that can really make the difference. TM was lacking just about all of them either on purpose or by neglect. It could probably work ok if you have a nice camper or motorhome with all the amenities, but doing it in a tent for five nights was too much.
The surroundings are great and beautiful. But all in all, the minimalist setup and seemingly deliberate neglect really made this trip miserable.

The campground itself seemed decent. I wish we could have stayed more than one night to get a better feel for this place.
I can’t give more than two stars though as we were made to feel uncomfortable right away.
Our site was right next to the camp host which is fine with me because we are good/​clean people. However, when we first arrived and were unpacking things, the hosts just sat there and stared at us. When I would look over, the man would move his head back so it didn’t look like he was looking. If I looked over long enough, he would slowly creep his head back out to see what we were up to. I didn’t appreciate that. Especially because there really wasn’t anything to see. Haha and you really don’t need to be so suspicious!
We left to go explore the area and came back without any issues. We then left early in the morning.
The campground is quiet but chilly so bring a lot of blankets. We also loved waking up to the sound of rain hitting our camper.
The trails around are lovely and there’s water near. Although beware that some trails are no dogs allowed.

TM Campgrounds was a great location for our late July camping excursion.
The Site — We had our standard wooden picnic table, enclosed fire pit, and bear locker big enough to fit our food and toiletries for three nights. It was easy finding spots without too many rocks or pine cones to pitch our tents and potable/​drinkable water faucets were in easy walking distance.
The Facilities — As expected, the bathrooms were pretty gnarly (meaning disgusting) but there were always daily cleanings and plentiful TP. Unfortunately there wasn’t any sinks for us to dispose of liquid food for some reason so we were forced to toss it down the toilet or into garbage bags.
The Area — There are some nice hiking trails near the campgrounds (we did Lembert Dome and Cathedral Lake) that are within walking or easy driving distance. There is also a small general store where we got post-​hiking ice cream and additional firewood. Yosemite Valley is one hour away but it was still super easy to head out early and spend a hour day there checking out the iconic landmarks.
I would definitely come back to camp here!

Before you stay here, keep in mind that this is a HUGE campground. 304 sites, plus 7 group sites, plus 4 horse sites. If you’re looking for privacy & peace and quiet in a respectful, nature-​loving environment, keep looking ’cause this ain’t it.
Pluses:
–convenient to gorgeous Tuolumne Meadows
–flush toilets & sinks in the bathrooms
–convenient to the Tuolumne Meadows store, which is well stocked with anything you could need. Heck, if you don’t want to cook, just cut through the campground on the path straight to the grill and have a burger & fries.
–we were able to get a reservation only 2 weeks in advance
–when we stayed here in August, there were no mosquitoes
Minuses:
–everything was in need of repair. The road was in poor shape. Low clearance vehicles beware.
–the women’s restroom in our section had 2 stalls. Two. The men’s restroom had one stall and one urinal. This is perhaps the only time I’ve ever seen a line for a men’s restroom and no line for the women’s. Way too meager for the density of people being serviced.
–bring earplugs. Your (very) nearby campsite neighbors will likely keep you up late with noise.
–campsite was small. The people on one side of us had commandeered the back portion of our site and proceeded to walk through the middle of our campsite to get to the bathrooms. Um, hello? Etiquette?
Thank goodness for red wine and earplugs… my ticket to a good night’s sleep.

We love to visit Tuolumne Meadows. We try to get back there every year. I have to say the biggest mistake I see parents making is camping in below 30 degree weather with toddlers. Parents, keep in mind Tuolumne Meadows is High Sierra camping. Even we adults need a day to acclimate. Little kids and babies have an every tougher time because they don’t know why they feel weird and out of breath and it’s so cold. Time and again we see them toddling during the day, only to be disoriented, screaming and crying in the middle of the night. Not fun for the rest of us.
Tuolumne is a wonderful place to escape from the onslaught of the Valley population. Don’t come here with dogs, babies and toddlers and huge RVs with generators and expect this to remain a quaint place where people can attempt to escape from the more worldly and impacting human experience. Keep Yosemite Wild!

This campground doesnt do anything wrong, they have all the amenities. Although there arent great views or anything around here.
Firepits are low– which is a sort of a good thing. The space for tents are usually flat although you may have to drive on dirt to reach your campsite. Nothing too bad. Rangers are friendly. We had plenty of wood lying around in June so we didnt even need to buy wood. There is a store less than a mile away where you can find everything you need.
We wanted a site close to the stream but the prime spots went early and the others had some amount of walking so we skipped it.

Camped here August 2011. I can only compare this campground to the one I experienced at Sequoia (in July 2011) and I have to say, that one was faaaaaar better.
My issues with this site:
— SMALL. It was pretty cramped for 2 cars, 6 people, 2 tents.
— Only 1 bear box. Bf tells me that is usually the standard, but at Sequoia we had 2 for each campsite. One needs crazy good organizing skills to jam everything into 1 bear box.
— SO FAR AWAY from the bathroom/​trash bins/​water spigots. At least 10 minutes walk each way, in the dark & the cold… alone if you can’t find a buddy at 3am to accompany you.
— Super close to your neighbors: there wasn’t any trees/​land separating us from our immediate neighbor, not too much privacy at all. and I felt we encroached on some of his space because there was 6 of us, and only 1 of him.
I’m sure I’m just being excessively nitpicky for camping (I’m in the wilderness, I should really just chill out!!!) and this site would’ve been perfect if we were closer to the bathroom, and maybe with 3 – 4 people to be comfortable. What is good about this site is that it isn’t as touristy, so not as many crowds & close to many great hikes.
Try to get there during daylight (especially if you are arriving at the campsite for the 1^st time), because 1 way road + no road lights = very dangerous.

FOr a national park… not a good place to stay.
For $ 20, not worth it. There was not only any showers within a 1.5 hour radius, but there also wasn’t any soap or sanitizer. I get it, there is bears, but is it eco or sanitary to have piss all over the floors EVERY time I peed over our 3 day stay? Come on… not worth it. I wish we would have just camped with nothing around. This place sucked. It was loud at night, the road had n’t been paved for years. On this road trip, we’ve gone to 10 national parks, and Tuolumne Meadows had the worse facilities. Come on. This is Yosemite. Step it up. DON“T STAY HERE. WORSE $ 20 EVER!!!

We had two campsites side by side offering a lot of space in which to place 5 tents! The bathrooms are a bit far but very clean. The bins were also a little far but also clean and not overflowing. The campground itself has over 300 sites but the sites are large and therefore reasonably private. It’s an easy walk to several hikes as well as the Tuolumne river as well as climbing at the Puppy and Kitten boulders which is nice if you dont want to get in the car and drive. A nice place, even if a bear did rummage through our campsite at 6am!

On the last night of our epic 19-​day road trip of July-​Aug 2010 we did NOT camp at Tuolumne Meadows… but still some good helpful info to share.
I have to say that this part of the trip was really NOT well-​thought out in advance. It actually took me until the start of the trip home to convince my husband that we should return via the Yosemite/​Nor Cal route. So we were being pretty optimistic about this Yosemite jaunt. But none of our kids had been to Yosemite yet, and I have been wanting to camp out up here in Tuolumne just about forever. We woke up super early on a Monday morning thinking we would get into the park early (from June Lake!) and pounce on one of the non-​reservable campsites (like half of the 304 campsites!). We figured that would be a no-​brainer since it was a Monday and all… so we’re driving along Tioga road, making good time, still only about 7 am, minding our own business «OH MY GOD K I DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT MASSIVE LINEUP IS FOR BUT YOU BETTER GET IN IT!» my hubby shouts. So I jump from the moving car and run to the line. Sure enough, it’s the line for campsites opening up. I strike up a conversation with the woman in front of me, who has also been on the road for many weeks with her husband and kids and whose husband said almost word-​for-​word what mine did as they were pulling up. About 7:45 the ranger comes out and announces that the has like 22 campsites opening up (and we are at least 40^th in line!) and that she would start handing them out at 8 am and anyone who didn’t get one could get wait-​listed and return at like 2 pm to see if any more had opened up. Apparently once you get in there you can just stay like, forever, so not many of those 152 non-​reservable campsites actually open up on any given day.
Oh and by the way, even though it’s July/​August it gets COLD overnight up here so shorts and flip-​flops might be a little underdressed for the early morning. Speaking from experience.
So in the mean time fellow road-​tripping woman and I have both decided to send our husbands and kids on down the road another half hour or so to see if they can get us campsites at Porcupine Flat (unmanned by rangers and totally non-​reservable.) (I will be reviewing Porcupine Flat campground next.) We both get wait-listed…if you don’t show then you don’t get a campsite so no worries about cancelling here. Then the waiting… for our families to come back. This is a good chance to get some hot tea at the little Tuolumne grill/​market, maybe shop for some provisions, and sit on a sunny rock and warm up. It took like an hour and a half, but the husbands and kids finally showed up back at Tuolumne Meadows. They actually ended up getting the only two open campsites right next to each other (although you don’t have to be out until like 10 or noon so more sites opened up after that.) So by now our two families felt like old friends.
That would seem like the end of the story, but we did come back the same evening for the ranger program which was excellent (I highly recommend attending any ranger programs if you have kids — they are usually informative and fun and tend to take place around a campfire and if your kids are doing the Jr. Ranger thing, a chance to talk to the ranger and check off some of those activities.) We were running a little behind, and WOW! I was shocked at how hard it was to find the campfire circle. It is really buried way, way, way back in there in the maze that is Tuolumne Mdws campground. The reality of «304 campsites» sunk in at this point. 304 is A LOT of campsites. And A LOT of people. And a LOT of RVs and A LOT of noise and chaos. And this is when I realized how happy I was that we ended up at Porcupine Flat!

We stayed at Tuolumne Meadows Campground from Fri 8/​27-​Sun 8/​29, 2010. It’s pretty far from Fremont taking 5hrs to get there. Since we had reservations we went to the kiosk and the guy asked us what campsite we wanted since they don’t assign one to you beforehand.
We requested a site near the bathrooms and got C68. I liked it because it was only 1 site away from us. Regular sites can hold 6 people. We had 2 tents & 3 people.
There’s one bear bin to put all your food & smelly stuff. Site was pretty quiet, though depends on the neighbors you get. Bathrooms: NO LIGHT — Bring your own lantern or headlamp. Womens: 3 flushed toilets, 2 sinks, cold water. Potable water outside the bathroom. Garbage cans across from the bathrooms.
We went for 1 night campfire talk «Bear Necessities» given by Ranger Mike on Sun 8÷28÷10. There really was a campfire! I enjoyed it.
We did 3 hikes in 3 days in Tuolumne Meadows — Tuolumne Falls, Cathedral Lakes (Lower & Upper), & May Lake (on the way out). Still more to do in the area so hope to go back next yr.
Website for reservations:

This is my favorite place in the world. We had a great trip. This year was a bit odd though. The employees and people are not NEARLY as friendly as in the past. We had trouble at the TM store AND at the campground with a sort of ‘self righteous’ attitude from the employees.
I think it is completely UNFAIR that rangers/​park workers use their authority to pre-​reserve and HOLD campsites for guests. They advertise that sites CANNOT BE HELD! We were shocked when we requested an empty site and were told that it was taken. Hmn… okay? We followed the guest/​camper out the gate, how could it already be taken? Impossible! We waited and 8 hours later people showed up. Interesting. 1 hour later, the same ranger that told us we could not have that site was having dinner with her friends/​family in THAT site. It was site A88 on July 29. I wish that we had complained while we were there. It just does not seem right. Disappointing to say the least. If sites can’t be held, they can’t be held. Rules are Rules!!! Oh well. I guess we will keep that in mind for the future, rangers clearly can reserve and hold whatever they want. UGH.
The A loop is great because it is close to the river, but the G loop is awesome because it is so private. We had G3 one year and it was SUPERB!

–We came around 6−7am and there was already a line, so definitely come early if you don’t have a reservation!
–Lembert dome is a cool hike from here. If I can do it, you can do it.
–I was surprised that the bathrooms were kept rather clean. Very thankful for this. I wish there was electricity though so I could see at night, but I guess this adds to the fun (?) of camping. Bring a flashlight!

My first time in Yosemite, that I can remember anyway, we decided to just wing it and hope to get a spot at one of the campgrounds that offers ‘first come first serve’ option.
We arrived in late June… and had a hunch that somewhere along the less busy 120 which heads up north of the Yosemite Valley would be the most likely spot for an open campsite. Up up up we went, winding our way along Tioga Road past stunning glacier carved scenery. Both Tamarack and White wolf had «full» signs, but finally after a 55ish mile drive we arrived at Tuolumne Meadows 9000ish feet up.
The campground itself is just east of the Tuolumne meadows store, gas station and visitor center and on the Southernish slopes of the meadows themselves. We got there at 7:30am and there was already a line forming for the open campsites. (The office is open 8 – 5)
In line I learned that The Pacific Crest Trail passes right through here, and June is generally when all the hikers make it to Yosemite after starting out in Mexico in April. Everyone hanging around the site were definitely of the younger and more rugged variety. Also I became aware that June is mosquito season.
We got campsite G14… and let me tell you, I absolutely loved it. It is a bit of a walk to the restroom, but whatever you’re camping. The point is this site is very very secluded. You can hardly see or hear your neighbors, there is ample space in between. I mean of course your campsite might be the first a bear would visit, but that’s why each site has its own bear locker for all your food and toiletries to hide. I recommend bringing an umbrella to provide shade for your locker, because it can literally turn into an oven.
I have to say, in retrospect I’m really glad we stayed in Tuolumne meadows, because it was far less touristy then the Yosemite Valley. Yes in June it is infested with mosquitoes, but I’d rather deal with them then loud obnoxious tourists traffic.
The nearby Tuolumne meadows store and grill sell everything you might have forgotten and the prices are generally reasonable too. You can walk right down to the meadows from the campground, or head out on any of the wonderful hiking trails that start right there in the meadows.
I really recommend Tuolumne if you’re looking for a cooler (temperature wise) less touristy place to stay in Yosemite. Just keep in mind the Yosemite Valley is quite a driving trek. After my whole trip finished, I would have to recommend Yosemite in Early Spring or Late Fall, never in summer. Tuomlumne is only open in Summer generally, so definitely call ahead to make sure where ever you are going in the park is open, no matter what time of year it is.