Wawona Campground

We went on an excellent naturalist led hike at the Mariposa Grove. The naturalist was so knowledgeable and enthusiastic about communicating the history of Yosemite and Mariposa Grove and our walk with her was a memorable highlight of our trip. Campsite was great. Don’t leave any food, not even bottled water outside the bear boxes. It takes 45 min to drive from Wawona to the Village…which didn’t feel too long because the drive was gorgeous. Walking right up to El Capitan, Bridelveil waterfall hike, cook’s meadow loop were beautiful easy hikes for kids, but my favorite easy hike is the 0.7 mi hike from the upper pines campground ( walk to the north side of the bridge, then head right) to the happy Isles art center. That hike is easily one of the most beautiful hikes I’ve ever been on. You are walking along a gorgeous river stream surrounded by Yosemite’s iconic granite mountains. The other secret, not so secret place I’d recommend is Swinging bridge. There is a bridge, but it does not swing. It’s actually a beach, right by the river, surrounded again by breathtaking granite mountains. Have fun!

The workers were so nice and the location was beautiful and clean. We had a great time!

Wonderful experience here at Wawona. Nice Campground, plus it was convenient to gas and a store. I would totally stay here again

Campsite is nice, a bit close to others. Bathrooms are good with soap

The campsite was clean and quiet! No one was loud the night that I stayed, and I had no problems. It was lovely to swim in the creek as well. Possibly adding more bathrooms or a shower is the only thing I'd fix.

Great site next to the river. Large and flat, and close to the bathroom. Other sites up on the hill don't look as nice.

We managed to find two different sites available so we can stay two nights (just needed to move campsites after the first night). The first site was bare bones (A section), right at the entrance of the campground and the main road so it was very noisy with constant cars going down the main road, rvs arriving in the middle of the night (and leaving first thing in the morning), and the bathroom had an 80s kids summer camp feel (no lights and doors that only go halfway down and may not lock), but it sufficed for being able to stay in Yosemite. The second site was further in (C section) and quieter so we got a blessed night's sleep! The bathroom was much better as well. The creek is nice as well as the beautiful bats at night. It's nice that we can collect wood so we had a nice campfire. Mary and Paul at the kiosk were so sweet and helpful!

It's true that there's really no flat area to set up the tent. Even on the flattest area, we were sliding down in our tent throughout the night. But this was mostly manageable! The other not so great part of this site is the lack of shade in the afternoon, especially when it gets so hot in the summer afternoon. We couldn't bear to spend any time around the camp in the afternoon. The bear box also gets incredibly hot, so you have to keep anything you don't want to melt in the cooler. Last thing, and I'm not sure if this was an issue just for our site, was constantly trying to fight off yellow jackets from our food at meal time. I'd bring a canopy with netting to eat at this site if you have one.

Pros: easy access to the bathroom and clear view of the night sky for star gazing! I like that this site wasn't sandwiched on both sides by other sites. Bathrooms were nice and clean.

Loved the campsite. It’s right next to part of the Merced river. The spot we had was so spacious. The bear box was clean. The parking was a little awkward but not terrible. Right across from the bathrooms which was so convenient.

Nice campground! Stay along the river & enjoy easy access to swimming! Seemed like a lot of people camped here to do just that.