Re: When will Toulumne Meadows campground open?

Does anyone know when the campground might open? The official date on the Yosemite website is July 11th. I am hoping with the warm spring weather they might open before the end of June for 1st come, first serve?

The closed signs are there blocking the entrance. I asked a wrangler yesterday about the campground and he told me even with the good weather, there is lots of maintenance and downed trees to clean up. I walked through the campground yesterday to do Elizabeth lake hike and I saw no downed trees in the campground at all.Very waterlogged though from the deluge we had Monday night.

Thanks for the info. Looking to do some hiking in the area this weekend. If the campground at Toulumne is not open can you recommend any near by spots?

There are a lot of campgrounds outside Yosemite, East of the Tioga entrance. They are very close to the Yosemite Eastern entrance. The closest one is the Tioga Lake Campground, with Saddlebag Lake campground being fairly close to the entrance as well. Check out the Inyo National Forest website for more information: http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/inyo/recreation/camping-cabins/recarea/?recid=20256&actid=29. Do not trust the campgrounds opening/closing dates, however, since it says that the Tioga Lake Campground is closed, even though it was opened last week-end when I drove by it.

Additionally, I've read that sleeping inside your car on 120 outside of the park is generally accepted (not sure how legal it is).

Check with the camp ground office. It might open for this weekend.

Not really nearby, but the Yosemite Creek Campground off of Tioga Road was open last weekend and hardly anyone was camping there, even on a Saturday night. And the Tamarack Flat campground still had vacant campsites though I would reckon that about 60% to 70% of them were occupied.

I noticed that the Park Service did repave the first two miles of the Old Big Oak Flat Road from Tioga Road to the Tamarack Flat Campground. The last mile hasn't been repaved (yet). But for those first two miles, the road is super smooth (though still narrow). It's like driving on a two-mile long private driveway!

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Just wanted to let everyone know that I arrived at the Toulumne campground on the early afternoon of June 8th and they were open for business. We got a great site along the river and are going back to do some more hiking, camping and fishing this coming weekend. Thanks to Dave for letting me know that the campground was due to open that weekend!

Yosemite National Park's facebook page said the following:
Tuolumne Meadows Campground is open on a first-come, first-served basis. Half the campground will be reservations-only beginning on June 13 (reservations for 6/13 onward are now available via recreation.gov).