Outside The Park Yosemite Camping

I know this has been done and discussed plenty. But with the closure of sandlot and the crowds of el portal, does anybody have suggestions on places to car camp outside the valley? We'll be coming in for about a month and a half. Planning on climbing in the meadows til the end of September before coming down to the valley proper.

Also could be interested in splitting campsites for a few nights if some people are psyched.

Feel free to just pm me if you'd rather not state any of your spots on the forum.

Honestly the answer is within 4-5 posts of this post

Danny Herrera wrote: Honestly the answer is within 4-5 posts of this post

Holy shit he wasn’t lying

I drive into the Valley on 120, and I know good places to camp outside the entrance of 120. I’m  doing the legal thing and camping outside the park when I don’t have a campsite, but it’s a long way back to the 120 entrance.  It’s fine on my way in, but to make that drive in the evenings while I’m staying kind of sucks. Any better suggestions for interim nights on the 140 entrance that are closer than the 120 entrance? I’m van camping and my van is not subtle, it’s a pop-top and pretty obvious when camping.

I camped one night in the pullouts along the Hetch Hetchy road. I think it's legal, but not entirely sure. Anybody has better information?

Keep this off of the public forum.  You either know a spot or you don’t.  All the bandit camps are already getting over crowded, we don’t need the locations sprayed all over the internet.  Treat them like the old surfing rule of two: you know a spot, you get to tell one friend, not everybody, and definitely not the whole internet.

I'm not sure it's bandit camping, it's just the national forest. If it was illegal (and I'm not sure) I wouldn't be recommending it. If it is, then I think it's good to help other people :)

Helping other people is exactly what lead to the sand lot being shut down.

Yosemite is effectively surrounded by Nation Forest Service lands.  Many Forest Service (dirt) roads on these lands allow dispersed camping.  Call the rangers (for example, here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/stanislaus/recreation/outdoorlearning/recarea/?recid=82590&actid=120 ) to determine where.

There are multiple campgrounds in El Portal, there is lots of dispersed camping in the NF off 120,there is a campground in Wawona, and there is dispersed camping near Fish Camp.