Best Tent Camping near El Portal, CA

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).

Great location right in the valley. Amenities were nice (showers, laundry, food). The three-sided cinder block enclosure was a bit rustic and dirty. Would have felt cleaner actually camping in a tent where you can control what comes in and out of your personal space. Hiked several days in the park and took in sunset from Glacier Point (while doing the 4 mile hike earlier in the day from the valley floor up to the point). Beautiful!

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.

I really enjoyed tent camping here. I’m not a fan of the trailer camping because it’s all cement and everyone is close together, but it’s doable if need be. When tent camping, you’re under beautiful trees which I love!

We had a nice open camping spot. It was at the edge of Yosemite Valley. The only downside to the spot was everyone else had a RV and had there generators on at 6am. We are not RV people so we don’t know why they need to run them. Next time we will camp in a tent only area. This area had no showers.

Got one of the furthest sites tent camping. Could see all the stars. They also provide bear boxes for each site.

Beautiful tent camping above the Yosemite valley. Close enough to drive into the valley but far enough to not be surrounded by people at all times. Make sure to bring hammocks! Great trees to lounge in!

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!

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.

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.

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.

Tent camping and some RV sites available. Went at the very end of the season so cold at night but beautiful during the day! Various homes nearby. Lake was beautiful and the leaves were changing in time for winter. Very clean. Flushable toilets and running water. Walking distance from town.

Visited in Fall, beautiful time, All the trees were changing, it was beautiful.  The campground was nice, the spaces were separated, we tent camped.  Store a few minute walk down the road, along with place to rent boats for the lake.  Very calm and peaceful area.  Because of the beauty and seclusion, wonderful time. one of the best campgrounds/locations I've ever been to.