Nowak1981 wrote:I don't suppose anyone could point out a few camping areas over there. I know there is a couple that are one night only. Are there any decent sites where I can camp for a few days before and after the hike?
The "one night only" before and after your trip are going to be the designated backpackers' campgrounds. There are going to be several, but if the main campground those are attached to are closed for the season, so are the backpackers' sections. The exception being, Yosemite Valley.
Which leads to another important point: Unlike a lot of people that are going to be caught out with late openings of the campgrounds this year (ie: Tuolumne Meadows, White Wolf, etc), with your scheduled dates, your issue is going to be seasonal closures of those same campgrounds. That's typically somewhere in the Sept 15th range. They may end up staying open longer this year, probably not. With this in mind, you should monitor campgrounds that are drive-up, generally/entirely first-come, first-served such as: White Wolf, Yosemite Creek, Porcupine Flat, Tamarack Flat, Bridalveil Creek, Camp 4 (too disgusting for anything but a desperation play). You can mix and match, bop around night to night, spread out.
The other alternative is to do a little research on the areas surrounding Yosemite and maybe even just drive and see what you find in various National Forests and recreation areas. Some of the lakes east on Tioga Rd (Hwy 120), toward Mammoth, even north, up towards Tahoe on Hwy 395 come to mind.
One other alternative is to get new wilderness permits for overnighters on trailheads that are either typically not so impacted, you can get a walk-up permit for fairly quickly and easily, or where the impact is starting to wane for the season, and, that have camping available with just a short hike. Remember, you must be at least one trail mile off Tioga Rd, or, in some cases, a given distance out in order to camp legally. Here's a map, note the colored arrowheads for restrictions:
https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/ ... lheads.pdf Along the lines of the latter, within Yosemite NP, I would be thinking May Lake, Murphy Creek, Glen Aulin, maybe even Cathedral Lakes, Ireland Creek up Lyell Canyon, Young Lakes, Glacier Point...places like that. Basically, if you don't need the car 10 feet away, since you have the time, take more short trips.