camping

our first evening, we arrived at Camp 4 around 630pm.  the sign on the ranger station at Camp 4 stated:  "all sites are assigned and shared, and the entire campground was full" (the ranger left at 5pm).  over the course of the next few hours, we essentially drove around all of yosemite trying to figure out what to do.  all the other campgrounds were also full.  finally, someone recommended the Backpacker Lot.  we ended up "rogue-ing" it for the night in that parking lot.  it was kind of nerve-wrecking.  its such a commercial park, we expected there to be rangers everywhere patroling the streets and the parking lots.  we were afraid of getting ticketed since we didnt have a permit or anything.  luckily, our first night was uneventful.  :)

we got up really early the next morning to get in line at Camp 4 to talk with a ranger about getting a spot.  turns out, everyone had the same idea.  by 615am (the ranger station opens at 8am), there were already 15 people in line!  jason and i agreed that we'd rather be climbing.  so we did just that ;)  after we finished our climb around 4pm, we headed back to the ranger station at Camp 4 to see what our options were - with the expectation that the campground would be full again.  we talked to the ranger and it seems that a party was "just leaving" (we're guessing they were kicked out since you can only stay for a certain amount of time) and there was an open site!  so, fortunately, for the rest of our stay, we managed to stay in Camp 4!  sooo lucky.

Camp 4 is about the size of a football field with a bathroom in the middle and the parking lot on one end.  you cannot sleep in your car or van.  you have to set up a tent in the campground.  most importantly, all your food has to be kept in a bear box.  you must be bear aware!  im guessing we made 7 trips back and forth bringing the necessities - tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, camp stove, pots, water jugs, etc.  and as you can imagine, since we live in Nessa, we have tons of food that had to be moved - not just one cooler.  goodness, i'm not used to this ;)