North Pines Campground

Backpackers campground is the best campground in Yosemite hands down.

Very special location in mid summer, with such easy access to the Merced River and Tenaya Creek.

Camp site 522 is Awesome. On the river. Close to bathrooms. You do get other campers crossing your site to access the river, but it was no problem. Rangers were cool. Seemed most campers were respectful. Had a wonderful time tubing down the Merced.

The campground hosts, Louise and her husband were very helpful. They let lent us there floating raft which was very nice.

I stayed at the backpacker's camp. The campground was nothing fancy, just spaces to put up your tent, a table (luxury!), and restrooms. Didn't need to be fancy.
The downside is that it borders a frequently used valley floor trail, and sometimes you'll get large, loud groups of people talking and laughing on the trail... at 1am. And folks on bicycles with bright lights riding through the campground. Otherwise, it does what it needs to do -- be a quick night-before stop before you head out backpacking the next day.

Site 526 is lovely. We were lucky enough to get it for almost a week at the end of June. It is huge, and is on the riverbank, and doesn't have anybody directly to the left. There's a random clearing to the left of the site where campers can access the river.

However, our actual experience in this campsite was a disappointment. Our tent was tucked back in the trees, maybe 25 feet away from the road. But on the first morning we woke up to screams and running footsteps about a foot from our head. The entirety of our stay children were running through our campsite, between our tent and picnic table even after repeatedly asking them to take the road rather than run right next to us in our campsite. Random adults wandered through our site, between our tents, next to our picnic table as we were trying to eat.

I'm not sure if this was an anomaly to our specific visit, or if this is because the site itself is one of the largest in the campground and so people feel free to roam through it. But it made for an upsetting and stressful visit. I recognize that there is a lack of privacy inherent in camping, to have people running and screaming and wandering through our personal space 24/7 dulled the experience.

The campground rules also state that there is a max of six people per site, but this is not enforced whatsoever as there were at least 12 bikes at the campsite next to us with an RV and two tents.

Overall, the campsite itself was excellent. And the campground was in close proximity to Yosemite Valley. But I don't think I would tent camp at this site again if this is a common experience for this particular campsite. An RV wouldn't be as impacted by the lack of etiquette. I also noted that other campsites in North Pines didn't seem to have this problem.

So, overall campsite looks great. Experience our particular week was not so great.

Can't beat the location right in the valley with a river for swimming right next to the campground! The location is definitely the biggest benefit - the campsites themselves are pretty cramped and not very private. I'd recommend earplugs if you are a light sleeper. There are some sites that are vastly nicer than others - generally around the outside of the campground.

I was pleased with site 312. It was slightly more private/larger than its neighbors and could fit 2-3 normal size tents. It also had some shade during the day.

It is a beautiful spot! Thanks for a great time!

We had a great visit, love Yosemite. The volunteers staying onsite were lovely.
Thank you hope we get to return again soon

Campsite was great, but campers next to me parked on their site but set up their tents on our site. Also found out the hard way that because of road construction in the valley, campers in the valley had to walk 2-5 miles each time they wanted to go somewhere using the shuttle bus