Tuolumne Meadows Campground — Yosemite National Park

CAMPGROUND REVIEW: Coldwater Campground, Mammoth Lakes, CA

A beautiful 77 site campground nestled in at over 9,000 ft in the Inyo National Forest of the Eastern Sierras.

Amenities: large sites, modern restrooms spaced throughout the camp (two unisex doors, includes one sink with running cold water, a flush toilet, and metal mirror), water spigots near the latrines.

Each site has a large picnic table, a fire pit with sliding cook grate, a double door bear cabinet and small paved parking pad.

We chose site 66, as it sprawled to s mountain stream, nestled in shaded pines, had a couple flat tent spots and was relatively close to restrooms and water.

No electric, no showers (nearby Twin Lakes Campground Store rents shower time at $7.00…one person per shower.

Coldwater Campground is a short drive from Mammoth Lakes, which has all you should need or desire.

The trails from the back of Coldwater Campground go up, up, up…but offer spectacular mountain views, glacier lakes, picturesque alpine meadows, waterfalls and cascades. A short drive and bus ride away are trails to Iconic Rainbow Falls and Devil’s Postpile, among other ridiculously beautiful mountain trails!

Mountain bike trails are innumerable…and the paved multi-use trails are stellar and travel for miles. https://www.visitmammoth.com/blogs/top-5-xc-mountain-bike-trails-near-mammoth-lakes

There are rentals nearby for every sportsman. This is the active person’s Mecca! Also close-by is Mammoth Ski area that offers the downhill mountain bikers absolute Nirvana, during summer months.

https://www.mammothmountain.com/summer/bike-park-overview/mammoth-bike-park/mammoth-bike-park

At $24 a night, this seems to be the standard rate for this region…and that without showers.

Note: Even during hot summer months, it gets chilly at night. August 6, it was 50 degrees at night. A 40 degree dip from the cloudless daytime temps.

It did not take long to fall in love with the Eastern Sierra Nevadas. I would not hesitate to camp here again, and am already planning a return visit.

I was three days early- the campground would not open for three more days! But I was able to talk with a fellow that works at the store just outside the campground to get some info. The campground is used by lots of thru hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail as well as the John Muir Trail (I saw a large group of thru hikers filling up on food from the the store and grill on picnic tables outside) as well as campers who wanted to enjoy the high Sierra area of Yosemite Park instead of hanging out in the crowded Valley. The campground is huge with around 300 sites that accommodate tents, RV’s, Camper’s, and even a few equestrian sites. I was told that the sites in the A loop are the best sites since they are a bit more spread out, are near the river, and the backpacker’s area is there and that is where you get the best stories. Across the road is the Tuolomne Meadows area with great hiking and access to the big trails. There was a really neat soda spring you could hike to where ice cold water bubbled out of the ground. There were some historical buildings in the area that were pretty neat to check out as well.

Tuolumne Meadows: Yosemite's Hidden Gem of a Campground

One of the tricks with campgrounds in Yosemite is that you either have to 1. Book 5-6 months in advance on the exact correct date within 15 minutes of the site becoming available online, or 2. risk a walk-up by standing in line starting as early as midnight the night before you want to camp.

Enter Tuolumne Meadows, an incredibly beautiful campsite within Yosemite that doesn't normally become available until early June AND leaves half of their sites open to first-come, first-served campers. I was thrilled to grab a spot at Tuolumne online for mid-June with just one-week's notice, and there were even a handful of spots still available when we arrived. The campground is about an hour-and-a-half drive from Half Dome and other sites in "the valley," but there's so much to see and do closer to Tuolumne with a bonus of avoiding the standing-room-only crowds. I would definitely stay here again and fully enjoyed coming in from the east side of Yosemite with its breathtaking mountains (we normally enter from the busier west side).

The Campground

Tuolumne is a large campground surrounded by trees, tiny rivers, and breathtaking meadows. As with all campgrounds in Yosemite, there's no electricity, water hook-ups, or showers, but there are water faucets and flush toilets throughout. One thing to note is that camp sites vary greatly, so if you can scope out your site first in person or online, it's worth the research. For example, our site was so large and set back from the road that at first we couldn't find it, while our neighbor was right next to the road and barely had room for their camper and absolutely no privacy. There's also a large group campground, horse camp, backpackers camp (permit required), ranger program, and a really cute visitor center a 1/2 mile away.

Product Review: Gregory Grandeur Series Sucia 28 Backpack

My absolute favorite day pack is an old Gregory Iris that I've had for almost a decade, so as a family we were pretty darn excited to win TWO Gregory backpacks in a recent dyrt.com contest. For my oldest son, we chose a Gregory Grandeur Series Sucia 28 with the hopes that it would do double duty as both a camping/day pack as well as a school bag he can take to class and soccer practice.

The pack has three main areas he'll be putting to use: first is an outside mesh stuff bag for stinky soccer clothes, muddy cleats and/or wet clothes for camping and summertime trips, second is a large internal area with padding for both a laptop as well as an ipad and a small zippered mesh area for keys/chapstick etc., and finally there's a second large internal area with dividers for things such as pens, pencils, notebooks, etc. There's also a separate, smaller top zippered area for keys/wallets/phones as well as spots for water bottles on both sides. All-in-all, a pretty perfect setup for both school and road trips.

So far after putting the pack through the ringer during our recent 1700-mile road trip, it still looks brand new and passed every test as far as usability and comfort. It's the perfect size to fit the basics for a night or two of camping including sleeping bags, clothes, etc., as well as the pounds and pounds of books he'll be taking to middle school. For reference in looking at the photos, my older son is 5 feet tall and the pack fits him well now and should also grow with him just fine (it also fits my husband well who's 6-feet-tall). The red bag in the photos is the Gregory Miwok 18, worn by our younger son who is 4 feet tall.

Pros:

Sturdy and well-made. I keep noticing features such as the reinforced stitching at the stress points and the reinforced zipper pulls.

Perfect combination of features for both work/school and camping.

Looks great and feels comfortable.

Cons:

My only wish for this pack is that the outside mesh are was the tiniest bit bigger to more comfortably fit a soccer ball. I know, this is a pretty specific request and there are other bags specifically for soccer balls, but just a little bit more room there would be ideal and they we wouldn't have to cram it in quite so tightly (though it does actually fit with some pushing).

I was also going to add a "key clip" request for an inside pocket, and then I looked inside the small mesh compartment near the laptop area and found one (and felt kind of dumb when I found it). It really is a pretty perfect pack for our needs, and with my experience with other Gregory bags, I'm pretty confident it should hold up well.

Campground Review

Yosemite is one of those granddaddy national parks. It is large, gorgeous, and has pretty much everything you’d want in a park: great vistas, trails, campsites, facilities, lodges, history, activities, interpretive centers, etc. We drove down in a 32’ RV and got lucky in finding a campsite open on Tuolumne Meadows near the eastern entrance to the park. This area is more alpine in feeling than the more famous Yosemite Valley—more on that in a bit—but the landscape is no less incredible. The campsite was a little tricky to find in the dark but definitely large enough for our RV. No hookups at the campsite but a dump was a five minute drive away. Plenty of wooded area and a fair amount of privacy and quietness between the many campsites crammed in the space.

We picnicked in the gorgeous meadows before taking the 90-minute drive towards Yosemite Valley. It being the summer season and Yosemite now fully open—Tuolumne Meadows doesn’t even open until June due to snow—the park’s main challenge is its popularity. There were a lot of people on the highway throughout and Yosemite Valley itself was packed. The myriad falls, Half Dome, El Capitan and more all live up to their billing as absolute must-sees. But be prepared to see them all in the valley with a lot of people around biking, walking, hiking, listening to music, and coming to-and-fro from the fancy and amazing Majestic Yosemite Hotel (aka Ahwahnee Hotel). And even with the crowds, the whole park is absolutely fantastic. If you’re able to camp there or stay late enough for the sunset, the “dome glow” is inspiring.

Product Review

Gregory has been making backpacks forever and being a backpack junkie, I was keen to try out the Miwok 18 as a day pack which my wife had won via a Dyrt contest. It was an apt pack to use in Yosemite as the Native American tribe that frequented the area many years ago was, in fact, the Miwok tribe.

The pack is a very light weight 18 liter pack with lumbar and waist cross support straps, a nifty suspension system that kept the pack high on my back and not saggy, a fairly well-ventilated back cushion, a small sunglasses/smart phone/key pocket near the top and a good sized main pocket to house gear. There are two water bottle holders on the sides and an external quick stash pocket on the outside. The quick stash pocket expands with zippers but the top is still tied down with bungie cord so you can’t totally open it. Still plenty big to stash a jacket or wet towels—as we used it for a dip in the Merced River—and other gear. In fact, the pack as a whole had more than enough space for four towels lashed to the outside with compression straps, dry clothes for myself, my wife and two boys, two water bottles and some snacks.

The straps run a bit long that they dangle and I might think about shortening them but what it lacks in strap economy it more than makes up for in its best feature: its light weight. Apart from the Yosemite day of hiking around the valley, I also used it in Legoland to carry all our stuff for the day and my back didn’t get sore or tired shoulders.

All around, the Gregory Miwok 18 is a very solid day pack for a good hike and weekend excursion.

Getting there: As far as campsite in Yosemite go, Tuolumne Meadows is one of if not the most difficult to get to. From the East entrance of the park your still about 1.5 hours away from the campsite. To increase the difficulty of getting there Tioga Road is closed during the winters and will close anytime it snows.

Campsites: Tuolumne Meadows rest halfway between the Yosemite Valley and Mono Lake. Additionally Tuolumne sits just feet from the John Muir and the Pacific Crest Trail. All this access in combination with the difficulty of getting to Tuolumne Meadows makes it a great campground for those wanting to get away from the crowds and out onto the trails. WARNING: Because Tuolumne Meadows is so exposed to the forest there is HEAVY BEAR ACTIVITY. Keep your campsite clean, keep all food/toothpaste/sunscreen/anything that smells (even canned beer or alcohol) in the Bear Bin. The Park: Yosemite is awesome. What to do: You're already WAY OUT THERE so you might as well go see everything off Tioga Road (White Wolf, Porcupine Flat, etc. Also drive out to Mono Lake. You have perfect access to hiking the John Muir and Pacific Crest trail. Find a route and get out there!