Lower Pines Campground

This is a great campsite and very level. It was a decent amount of shade too which was nice. The trees were not close enough to hang a hammock though sadly. Close to the bathrooms and many trails! The site across from us 38 seems to be an awesome spot though. You would be more in the sun, but the views of Half Dome are unreal! Plus you're on the river side of the campground, so that running right behind you is lovely :)

Lucked into this spot in Yosemite Valley, working diligently until we obviously nabbed a cancellation. All the Pines campgrounds are great. This spot turned out particularly nice because of the view and the generous solar input. Clearly, this open space was caused by dead / fallen trees, which is a little sad, but the campsite is still awesome!

Bathrooms here are tired, typical of National Parks, but clean enough and feature flush toilets & running water, which is nice.

The location is obviously unbeatable! The campsite is completely full every single night, though a surprising number of people show up at sunset and then leave early the next morning. That is no way to see Yosemite. You need to stay several days to get a real experience here.

Surprisingly good VZW coverage in the valley. This must be relatively new, given Aluminarium's 2014 review saying there was no signal. Booster or directional antenna when inside an aluminum trailer will add to your enjoyment of the LTE, should you need it, but you can get by without it.

Hot tip: Once you get a campsite in the valley for a night, set up camp and head directly over to the valley's campsite reservations office. If your luck continues to hold, you may be able to grab a couple more nights in the valley, even though you may have to move to a different site to get them. We did this and scored two more nights in North Pines, site #506, which everyone repeatedly told us was the best campsite in the entire valley due to its view of Yosemite Falls from that site.

We rode our bikes through all the three campgrounds and felt we not only got the best one but we very likely got one of the best spots - mostly. There were only a few sites that would take our 28 foot Airstream and this site was a good fit. We were close to the restrooms and fresh drinking water but not too close. We had a view of Half Dome and we didn't feel crowded by our neighbors. The "mostly" comes from the fact that our site was on an inside corner, right next to the amphitheater and everyone cut through the site as a short cut to the front of the park or over to the river. It would have been okay if people would have given us a little respect and walked farther around our spot but they tromped right though. It was a small inconvenience when compared to the view and the openness of the site. We'd book this site again.

We walked through all 3 of the campgrounds in Yosemite Valley and we were lucky to be camping in what we felt was the best campground.

All 3 campgrounds were packed with large groups and smoldering campfires. Sites are close together and there isn't any privacy. Lower Pines has the most sun and some sites have views of Half Dome.

When I made the reservation, I called to get the site numbers that would fit our 27 foot Airstream, this is what they told me on the phone, I did not verify in person (our site #50 fit us fine).

Lower Pines - 20, 27, 38, 50,
North Pines - 323, 111, 128, 125, 403, 116

There isn't any Verizon service in the Valley and AT&T wasn't usable in the campground (even with a booster) but there is AT&T 4G at the Village Store.