North Pines Campground — Hotel in Oakhurst

I grew up camping and have camped on the beach, in the desert, in the woods, and in the mountains. Each has their unique features that give them a certain appeal. I really love the location of this campground nestled amongst the pines and next to the river.||If you like being in nature...meaning you prefer a long walk instead of a short drive (appx 1 mile), this is a good location that is a beatiful walk to the Half Dome Village. It is also a short walk to the Half Dome trailhead (the Upper Pines and Lower Pines campgrounds are closer). If you have a bike, everything is close in my opinion. I rode my bike all around the valley area...on nearly every paved trail and road...23 very easy and scenic miles.||Now the things that drop my rating begins with the reservation system. First, it is not intuitive to use...it doesn't make sense how to search or which links to use to find a campsite...to make a reservation. Next, in all my years of camping, I've never been in a campground where the campsites were packed together so densely (Upper and Lower Pines are the same). That being true, any one driving at night with the headlights on, lit you up! I drove with just my fog lamps easily until I was passed the campground entrance. You're so close to your neighbors that you can't help but hear their conversations...I suggest you speak softly. Also, being packed tightly means that if you're downwind of your neighbors camp fire, you may end up in their smoke! Two things I was warned about but didn't experience were, long park entrance lines and lots of visitors...meaning that finding a parking space is tough. I thought there were a lot of visitors, but my friends told me we got lucky with a minimal crowd (might be due to recent nearby fires). That being true, I'd hate to be here on a packed day.||On the good side; bathrooms are in good shape and clean. Bear proof storage containers are provided at each campsite...they reasonably large too! But check it for small openings as field mice might be able to still get at your food. Sites also have an ADA picnic table and a fire ring. No need to bring bottled water here. Water from all faucets and fountains here are mountain fresh and clean...just bring containers and fill up. Staff everywhere seemed very friendly.||So overall for me, there are good things about this campground, but also some drawbacks. But the in park, lodging alternatives are very, very pricey for what you get. Campgrounds outside the park entrance are a long ways away. So for me, I can only give the campground 3 stars. Now that is not a reflection on the park itself...there a separate...

I am writing this based on what I saw. We were fortunate to get a larger site and that is why I gave it a 4 star. I were in one of the other sites, which was the majority, I would have given this campground a 2 star. Each time I walked to the bathroom I was astounded by how small and what little space the other campers had. ||||There is drinkable water and there were bathrooms with running waters. The bathrooms were dirty most of the time. Even though we are out in the wilderness and sleeping in dirty, hygiene is a concern. At times it would have been safer to use the woods (which is unrealistic here). ||||The transportation system is great! There are stops 1 through 20 and the bus runs all day for free and in that order. The stop at North Pines is 18 and Curry Village has 2 stops of 14 and 20. ||||North Pines does not have electricity. ||||Showers are not available; but they are available for $5.00 at Curry Village and Housekeeping Camp. Bring water shoes; as with both locations you will be standing in "standing" water. The water doesn't drain properly. These locations were dirty too.||||Cell and wifi service. Note, this does not impact my review as this is based on individual cell service providers. We were unplugged; however there were a few times we wanted to text someone back home with pictures and we were not able to connect. The only reason I mention this, is because, if you plan to work on vacation you will be disappointed. For us the transition wasn't hard. We loved every unplugged moment!||||The reason I didn't give this place a 5 star is because of the dirty bathrooms and what I saw of most of the small campsites. If you can get beyond these two things, the campground is in a beautiful setting! We loved it all. . . the tall granite walls, starlit nights, the sound of the river, the campfire, etc. We would definitely return, but I would investigate what site I reserved, bring water shoes for the showers, and anticipate...

I mean, you can’t beat a view of Half Dome over breakfast! This was such a fantastic place to stay in Yosemite. Bear box was huge and it fit literally everything that was in our car - we decided not to take any chances and tossed basically everything that could possibly have a scent in there. We car camped so I can’t speak of how tent camping would be, but it was just perfect. And I hadn’t even been planning on getting a site in Yosemite - they sell out so far in advance that I had booked a site elsewhere outside the park; come to find out they release extra campsites in the spring after making sure the threat of flooding has passed (which, by the way, we could totally hear the Merced River from our site and it was so peaceful!). I was on Recreation.gov at 6:55 AM, fingers at the ready, and once they started releasing the sites, they were gone in 5 minutes! I think I tried grabbing five or six different sites before I finally managed to get one in my cart. Snagging our site was a miracle and we had an amazing weekend. Campsite and bathrooms were clean, showers at Curry Village were all right (not run by the NPS) and we were there pretty late at night after our all-day hike so there was no attendant on duty and we didn’t have to pay. The showers were pretty crowded even at nine pm and they don’t seem to drain really well so just be prepared for that. But everything run by the NPS...