All of Yosemite's campgrounds will be open this summer for the first time since 2019
For the first time since 2019, all 13 of Yosemite's campgrounds will be open to visitors this summer, the National Parks Service announced.
The additional openings will mean an extra 500 more campsites available than in recent years. The park is one of America's most visited, with more than 4 million visitors in 2024.
'We're very excited to have these campgrounds open to the public as we enter the busy summer season,' said Ray McPadden, acting superintendent at Yosemite National Park in a news release. 'Camping in this park is truly a magical experience, and we want to provide the opportunity for as many visitors as possible.'
Maintenance and staffing challenges kept several campgrounds closed each year beginning in 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Summer is peak season at Yosemite, and many of the park's campgrounds will be opening within the next few weeks.
White Wolf Campground will open on June 20, and Tamarack Flat Campground on June 23, the parks service said. Yosemite Creek Campground is set to open July 1.
Opening dates for Bridalveil Creek, Porcupine Flat and Tuolumne Meadows campgrounds has not yet been announced.
Reservations for Yosemite are available at Recreation.gov.
But you better act fast.
Finding a camping spot at the famed park is notoriously competitive, and they often fill up minutes after reservations open. Reservations are now available for both White Wolf and Tamarack Flat campgrounds, and reservations will open for Yosemite Creek on Tuesday morning.
As of Monday at 3:30 p.m., campgrounds showed no Friday-Saturday availability for weekend campers through at least the end of August, although White Wolf had some Sundays available.
Visitors can still access the park using day passes when campgrounds are unavailable.
Yosemite's reservation system was introduced in 2020 amid the pandemic and was halted earlier this year pending a review by the Trump administration.
Contemporaneous cuts to the National Park Service led to the layoffs of 10% of the agency's staff, raising questions about when the reservation system might reopen. The system ultimately came back online in late March.
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