Question about camp 4 at Yosemite

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#1

I’m planning to get into Yosemite around 2pm on the day before my JMT through-hike starts (Monday, 8/7), and staying overnight in camp 4, the first-come, first-served campground. I found a spot on the NPS Yosemite website that says the campsite fills up by early morning. That’s got me worried. I don’t think I can get there by early am. Can anyone with experience comment on whether the website is correct, and I have a problem with my mid-afternoon arrival. Will the fact that I’m getting there on a Monday help?

Thanks,

Len

Len

#2

If Camp 4 is full, there is a special “backpackers’ camp” set aside in one of the car campgrounds. I think they will let you camp there as long as there is space for your tent/sleeping bag on the ground. It is reserved for people with backpacking permits who just came back from a trip or who are leaving the next day, so I can’t imagine there won’t be space if you are there by mid-afternoon on a Monday.

Kanga

#3

Thanks Kanga, perhaps I just learned something.

I had assumed that camp 4 was the ‘backpackers camp’. Are you certain they are not the same?

As you said, I’m leaving the next day, so I’d like to think they’d find a space for me some place.

Len

#4

The backpackers’ camp is just a big area within the North Pines car campground that is reserved for backpackers. No parking, no designated sites, but there should be room for everyone, although you might end up closer to your neighbors than you might otherwise like. If it gets too crowded a ranger will likely check to make sure that everyone there has a wilderness permit and either just finished or is just starting a trip, and I’m sure they would ask you to leave if you tried to stay there several days. Here is a link to more information:
http://www.nps.gov/yose/wilderness/tripplanning.htm#bpcamp

Camp 4 is the traditional “climbers’ camp” located near the start of the Yosemite Falls trail. Very well known within the climbing community, and you’ll see references to it in a lot of climbing books. In fact, there is even a book of Yosemite Valley climbing history called “Camp 4.”

Kanga

#5

Kanga, thanks again. Len

Len