Winning Yosemite’s Campground Reservations Online Lottery
It’s no surprise that Yosemite National Park is a wildly popular destination – with magnificent waterfalls, sky-scraping granite rock formations, and ancient giant sequoias; the park saw over 4.5 million visitors in 2019! Additionally, having over 800 miles of hiking trails within 1187 square miles of park, Yosemite is a popular destination for anyone loving the outdoors. And considering camping fees are only $26 per night for a stay in an outdoor wonderland and chance to sleep under the stars, it’s no wonder winning this lottery is a crapshoot!
Now, during the Pandemic, Upper Pines campground may be the only one open for reservation requests (and only partially with up to 50% of campsites remaining closed for social distancing) out of 13 campgrounds in Yosemite. And, even before the pandemic, Upper Pines campgrounds has been one of the most popular in Yosemite Valley since it offers roomy campsites under tall pines with stunning views of El Capitan and Half Dome. But, with only 240 campsites (and much fewer with current restrictions in place), Upper Pines campground reservations become a lottery on the 15th of each month (reservations are released one month at a time, five months in advance).
(1). The first thing you will need to get a campground reservation at Yosemite is a free account on recreation.gov if you don’t already have one. This is the online system that allows for reservations across the National Park system. Once you have your account setup, you can search campgrounds you want and review site lists which give details about each campsite. After you decide when you want to visit Yosemite, log onto recreation.gov and search your desired campground. For example, search Upper Pines to get a site list description of the campground, fees charged, and the chance to view the list of sites and site availability. It’s a good idea to go through the sites well in advance and pick out 8 to 10 sites that will accommodate your small travel trailer (many have detailed descriptions of the campsite, such as whether it is in shade or close to a restroom). Pick some sites that are highly desirable (such as overlooking a meadow or stream) and some that are average. This will increase your odds of getting a spot because there are many more people trying to get the highly desirable spots.
(2). Figure out when you would like to go to Yosemite and count back five months to understand when you will need to make your online reservation. For example, if you want to go sometime between May 15th and June 14th, you will need to make a reservation online five months earlier at 7 a.m. PST on January 15th. At the present time, the system does allow you to extend your reservation past the 14th if your arrival date is on or before the 14th. This presents an interesting strategy in allowing booking into the next reservation window which is not yet open and, in turn, possibly increasing your chances of getting a campsite. For example, if you want to stay in the second part of June for a week, you could still book on January 15th by booking an arrival date on June 14th and checking out June 21st!
(3). Get your list of 8 to 10 sites ready for the morning of the 15th. Don’t worry about booking more than one site, because you are actually not booking the campsite until you go through the complete reservation including payment. Clicking on Book Now will just hold the site for 15 minutes until you complete your reservation. If you don’t follow through with the reservation, the site will be re-released to the public after 15 minutes.
(4). Plan to start online prepping at around 6:30 a.m. (PST) on reservation morning – sign into your account and start clicking on each site you want (making sure it hasn’t already been reserved during the previous reservation cycle, if it is close to the date of the previous month cutoff). The recreation.gov website will automatically open a new browser window for each site you click on. You will now have multiple browser windows open (one for each desired campsite, perhaps 8 to 10) with each displaying the Book Now buttons and price of the stay. Open up an accurate time website like this one to carefully monitor PST. As soon as the time hits 6:59 a.m. and 50 seconds start clicking on each Book Now button in your windows. The idea is to get your reservation in exactly at 7 a.m. If you are just a little too early, the reservation request will bounce and you will have to click Book Now again. You are likely competing against thousands of clicks for 240 or less campsite spots. Once you reach the end of the windows, go back to each of the windows from the start to see if you got lucky. If you did, you will see a shopping cart on the top right with 1 item and a timer counting down from 15 minutes. If you do not complete your reservation within 15 minutes, it will be released back into inventory. All available sites will usually be gobbled up within a couple of minutes or less.
If you didn’t win the online reservation lottery this time, don’t despair. First, check back on recreation.gov around 7:15 a.m. the same morning as there is a good chance some reservations didn’t go through and the sites have been re-released for purchasing. When searching at 7:15 a.m., select your dates and then View by Availability. If you see a campsite that may work, click on it immediately to at least secure it for 15 minutes while you figure out if it really is a viable option for you. If no campsites are available, and you are feeling especially lucky, you could just drive to Yosemite and see if any first-come, first-served campsites are open. Please check here if this idea seems thrilling. If this sounds a bit too risky, another option is to stay outside the park at a private campground. Or, you can try using CampFlare– a free service website that scans the reservation systems for last minute openings and notifies you when a campsite becomes available.
Having a small travel trailer will greatly slant the odds in your favor at winning Yosemite’s Campground Reservations Lottery because most of the campsites are small. So far, I’m two for two at this lottery! Hopefully the above tips will put you in the winner’s circle as well! Good luck! See you up at Yosemite!
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