AlmostThere wrote:If I were you I would grab a cheap motel room in Manteca on the way to the park and call it good. Get up early and finish the drive in the morning. Navigating from SFO to Manteca can take an hour, or it can take six or seven, depending on whether or not someone gets in an accident. It looks short enough on google maps, but even just now at nearly 10 at night, I see three construction zones and an accident...
Yeah, that's really the safest bet. AT obviously knows that stretch really well and is giving you great advice. On a Friday, pretty much count on something unpleasant going on somewhere on that drive, and probably not getting out of SFO until 1-ish puts you into a really bad window of timing for some of the worst of it. I know you're going to be anxious to get there, and not pushing on after coming all the way from Boston is going to go against every instinct you have, but Manteca's going to be the last place to find any reasonably priced rooms. You get out to Oakdale and prices are going up and selection is going down. Also on a Friday night, closer to the park in places like Groveland and Buck's Meadow, not only won't you find anything that's available, including campgrounds, but even with booking ahead of time, they'll gouge you hard for a dump of a room. Finding a spot at Tamarack or Yosemite Creek boils down to pure luck and operating on hope, but if you try to go for broke and test out the possibilities at Tuolumne without something secured ahead of time, it's going to be a very long and miserable night. The rangers patrol Tioga Rd constantly, and they aren't too keen on people sleeping in their cars.
Good luck with finding a campsite this morning! That would just solve everything.