Best Tent Camping near Atwater, CA

Good tent camping. The Merced river runs along the east side of thr Park. I think there are beaches but can't confirm it (see pics).21 tent sites ,showers, bathrooms, lost of tables and water for the sights to share. The camp does need to catch up with maintenance in he facility though,lighting and cleaning. No camp host while we were there, that could be why?

Wow, let's say we had a nightmare ishhorrible experience. We rented a tent camp site for 2 nights. We were given an RV Slab camping site. It had the tiniest barbecue grill available. The water that was coming out of all the faucets,  was red and brown. People weren't allowed to shower that night. Once night fall came, the camp's site was infested with roaches Everywhere, they went in all our grocery bags and under them. Went into and under all our boxes that we had. The roaches hid under our tents also. There also seemed to be a termite infestation. We had to cut our camping trip short after spending over a thousand dollars on supplies, food, the Camping site and parking fees The workers that drove by, especially Travis, were nice and Welcoming. Dogs have to be on a leash at all times. If you want to go into the lake with your dog, You have to walk very far away if you didn't rent one of the tent sites at the lake front area. Had to fumigate my vehicle when I got home with all my stuff in it. I pray none of the bugs will be in my stuff at home. I heard many other guests screeching and shouting, omg theres cockroaches every where. Good to know, we weren't the only ones disappointed. The owner Jake refused to refund me, or my two guests that wasted their 50 dollars in parking fees, although the trip was cut short due to the conditions. Jake offered for us to stay another night. Will never be back. Beware.

We tent camped on the river here and really enjoyed our stay. We floated on the river in tubes, visited Nearby Rainbow Pools, went into Yosemite Valley a couple of days, the park is about 5-10 mins from the entrance to Yosemite but we didn’t mind we enjoyed the drive into the valley and used it as an opportunity to spot wildlife. We had two young kids (6 &8) and the campground restrooms and showers were perfect after a long day hiking, they were well maintained, good water pressure. These restrooms were located at the ponderosa tent sites, we had some family also camping in RVS along the river and I can’t speak for those restrooms. No cell service & WiFi is unlikely to work so prepare to be unplugged..they do give you printed directions to the closest area to get a signal depending on your carrier. The staff was very friendly and helpful! We will definitely be back one day. Side note: we came during COVID so reservations to Yosemite National park were required, therefore the park and surrounding campgrounds were not as packed as they normally would be. (This was heavenly).

Our group stayed in a tent campsite for one night in August 2016. This was our first campsite for a 2 week national parks road trip.

My biggest gripe with this campground is that it is not stated anywhere on their site that you cannot park your car in your campsite. At least for us, we had to park down a hill and walk up to our site. We spent our entire evening and the next morning walking back and forth, back and forth, back and forth anytime we needed something from the car. Having the car in the site is so so much better and all the other campgrounds we stayed at were set up that way.

Additionally, the entire campground was incredibly dusty, more so than any other campground we stayed at during our trip. The bathrooms/showers were not very well maintained (quite dirty and dusty) although the stalls did all have toilet paper. It was also quite a walk from our tent site which was located in the back part of the campgrounds.

Staff were generally helpful and they have everything you'd need in their office/general store (ice, firewood, snacks, etc).

Overall, we were happy to have found a campground nearish Yosemite at the last min since most things book up really quickly inside the park, but I'm happy we didn't stay here more than one night.

Tons of Gold Rush history here, nice rv glamping featuring showers and a boat launch at first camp, more primitive tent camping up the road at second camp (my fave). I've been camping here for years, it's my favorite in the world!

Clean Campground and site. The site we stayed at had a nice fire ring, was flat, had a picnic table and it was close to running water. We tent camped, but it looked like there were plenty of RV spots too. Nice and quiet too.

It's a nice campsite. A bit of trash scattered around the tent spots. Excellente toilets and showers, but not so great out of hours check-in. Also 70+USD for a tent site with no hookup in November is a rip-off.

Great option if your looking for full rv hookups. If you’re tent camping, this might not be the best place. Bathrooms were very unclean but the park gets the job done as a place to sleep while visiting Yosemite. No Verizon or T-Mobile coverage. Wifi available for purchase.

We starter visiting Modesto Resivor in the sixties. My father would hail all of our gear out to one of the many islands, and let the kids and dogs run free. Now that we are older, we camp on the shore line. Rustic tent camping near the water-skiing course is my favorite. Quite nights and darker stargazing. Blonde Beach is where your likely to find us Jetskiing.

The tent sites were right on top of each other and there was nowhere to park. You had to climb a steep hill to get to them with your car and again to the actual spot. The people were awesome, the facilities were clean and the pool was refreshing. They have WiFi that works great, a store with ice, snacks, and food.

If i could give this campsite for than 5 stars i would. my best friend and i are traveling across the country and we both agreed this was by far the most amazing place we have stayed. we were blessed enough to hang out with all the animals including baby goats and kittens, Jason was beyond kind and generous and has a full kitchen set up outside just for campers! I have never felt more at home at a campsite and he was beyond accommodating to all of our needs. the property is beautiful and an amazing place for tent camping and star gazing.

We went during the week and we were the only ones there. The Rangers are super nice and the showers were clean. They do have a ton of open space but lack shade and their website needs some updates since they don't represent the campsites very good. the lake was nice and warm and very refreshing. They don't have a whole lot of activities to do here so bring a football or some board games to play. They only drawback that we had was that the water hookup was too low to the ground to wash dishes (we do tent camping). They also allow you to have a fire pit fire and supply you with a fire ring and bbq pit. Overall we were very happy here.

We were a bit disappointed by our trip to Yosemite Pines. It has all of the facilities and potential to be amazing, but it felt a bit run down and like it wasn't taken care of properly. The bathrooms and showers were not clean, which is a shame because they are nice and spacious. We were also in a tent site with only one other person in our loop (We were loop A) and we felt a bit uncomfortable with it being so open. It would be nice if there was a barrier of trees or something at the back of the loop because it felt very open to the road and as if anyone could walk up. Maybe it was just us, but it just made us feel very uneasy. It also didnt help when we were woken up at 2am with the sounds of footsteps outside the tent. We think in the end it was an animal, but it definitely sounded like human footsteps which was very unnerving. It was a great location for Yosemite, a bit far away, but a good base camp especially when Yosemite is full.

With a pool, petting zoo, a corral where they have a fire and s'mores followed by a movie, this is a great place to camp with the kids.

The showers are free and usually clean although on Saturday evening the campground was full and the bathrooms were dirty and out of TP.

There are tent sites, RV sites and cabins so something for everyone.

There were A LOT of stray cats on the property which kind of drove our dog crazy. But at least the campground is pet friendly.

If you plan to go into Yosemite NP, it's a long drive so plan accordingly. Our family really enjoys Rainbow Pools and Yosemite Pine's proximity to Rainbow Pools is part of why we stay here. The kids can jump and swim there and that's all they really want to do anyway so being close to that is key for us. So many of the places in the park where we used to get in the water do not allow swimming anymore.