Best Campgrounds near Merced, CA

Beautiful scenery, clean, close to Yosemite, and easy to reach.

As others have said, follow Mount Raymond Rd up until you see the sign for the snow play area, and look to the right. There’s an open area with fire pits. There’s also a few more spots further down the road it seems.

Great views along the John Muir trail. 24 hour Public restroom .o2miles from camp site. Near the gas station/market in Greeley Hill,CA. 30 min from Yosemite West gate. 45min to cherry lake and many fresh water rivers and waterfalls. On a road with homes, but is at the end of the road. No water or toilet available yet.

We loved our stay here. The surroundings are beautiful and peaceful. The animals are a great bonus. Perfectly family friendly with plenty of room to hang out by the fire. Jason and his family were awesome making sure we had everything we needed. Highly recommend. The road in is bumpy, but we pulled a 40 foot 5th wheel up no problem.

My family of four enjoyed camping here. Site 116 is great. It is a little steep to get to the fire pit but the view were worth it.

It was very quite and isolated but the roads were very difficult for an rv to drive. There is also a sign “no overnight camping” but we had no problems to stay the night.

Not too far from Ripon, which has some good restaurants and cool bars. But bring your quarters if you want to take a shower.

Only about a mile or so off the main road. Spots are a little confusing as there’s no direct road through the sites, but you’ll find a spot. Been here a few nights on a holiday weekend and wasn’t busy at all. Really close to the park entrance and to the less populated but still great areas of the park. Fire rings. No bathrooms over here and no dumpsters. Gets a little cold at night (April) but not unbearable by any means. Pretty quiet (with the right groups around you), easily accessible and comfortable. Can’t ask for much more.

This site had loads of space. When we camped 1 car 2 tents on 4/11/25 there were a number of other people and plenty of spots to check out. The area felt safe and easy to access. It’s about 1 hour from the valley visitor center. Had great cell service through Verizon.

Stayed here with wife, two friends, and dog. Great selection of sites, overlooking pond, lots of farm animals, and very friendly and courteous host. Not too long a drive to Yosemite Valley also!

Cabin had bunk beds. Small refrigerator

Plenty of space for all vehicle sizes. Roads are very accessible. Nice and wooded.

It wasn’t bad, it wasn’t great. It’s a small place that’s probably not crowded often. It’s got bathrooms that are located kinda far if you aren’t in the two sites on either side. Mostly it’s just real ugly, imo. Trees around have burned down in the last 3-5 years it looks like, dry looking even in March. We didn’t stay and set up because it’s just not nice to look at and there’s many nice places nearby. Good place to go if you can’t find much else around. Also, it’s one of the few places I’ve found that have decent cell service, enough for my son to use YouTube and I can make phone calls, gps works. All on just my cellphone hotspot. I have Verizon, idk about other carriers. Decent cell service on site is a big thing for me so that’s why I wouldn’t not stay at this place but it’s bare bones w/toilets and certainly not first choice especially when you have other options nearby.

I love this park and specially love the off season. I usually haul in just day hours and stay worry and bother free!

We have stayed at this campground many times and recently revisited in September’24. This COE is on a small lake that is used for irrigation during the summer resulting in a much lower water level than in the spring. Fishing is good. The Corps have added more electric sites over the years and there were 5-6 that fit our 43’ Blue Bird. We marked this as “big rig” friendly. Springtime has the grasses green with abundant wild flowers in late Feb through early March. Summer can be hot as the elevation is low in the California Central Valley and the grasses are brown. Sites are asphalt. Many sites may take some time to level. Back in and pull through are available. A nice dump stations is available within the COE park. Fall has a Tarantula migration and you will definitely see them. Coyote, Bobcat, and deer are frequently seen. Codorniz is 21 miles from Chowchilla. One way in and one way out cuts down on traffic.

Sites 120 - 144 offer full hookups. However, the sites are arranged on a parking lot. We were able to get our 43’ Blue Bird completely onto site 138. Power was good but there were only 4 of us in the FHU sites. Millerton is a great boating and fishing lake close to Fresno and within a few hours of Yosemite NP.

We would not stay here again until the park gets control of the ground squirrels. We heard stories of cars and RV’s being towed out because they chewed through wiring. Thankfully we escaped with just damage from them entering the RV and getting into plastic containers of food in the bays. On our last night we moved to a parking lot by the lake so we could avoid further intrusion. The campground was also littered with garbage. I was constantly picking up litter on my walks.

There are other campgrounds in the recreational area that have no utilities that could be a better choice for smaller RV’s.

Im not sure wether or not they had upgrades done recently, but the bathrooms were astounding. Very modern and especially clean. Very beautiful and quiet park with the calmest river and soothing sounds of the birds around you. Great escape from reality!