by AlmostThere » Fri May 15, 2009 7:14 pm
The backpackers campgrounds are for the night before or the night after your backpacking trip. You must have a wilderness permit to stay there and it's five dollars a night. Backpacker campgrounds are available in the valley behind North Pines Campground, at Tuolumne Meadows and at Hetch Hetchy.
All reservable permits will be booked already, and have been for some time. You may be able to get a first come/first serve permit for your planned outing by showing up as early as possible the day before you want to start your hike. I once drove up and waited in line from 5:30 am to 7:30 when the wilderness office opened, and snagged the last permits for Half Dome/Little Yosemite Valley. It's the luck of the draw, if the person in front of you is getting permits for ten people, you may be SOL. Therefore, it's good to be flexible in itinerary. You might be studied up enough to get Merced Lake permit instead, or a Sunrise passthrough permit, from the same trailhead. You might also be able to snag a Glacier Point/Panorama Trail/Little Yosemite Valley permit. The office closest to the trailhead has priority - there are offices in Wawona, the valley, Tuolumne Meadows, and you can also get permits at the Hetch Hetchy gate.
You will NOT be able to camp anywhere before Little Yosemite Valley, and you will have to stay in the designated campground there. Dispersed camping can be had further out, like Merced Lake or along the trail past Half Dome/Clouds Rest. You cannot camp on Half Dome itself or on the trail to it.
Read the Yosemite website - there are a lot of rules, because they are fighting with bears that break into cars and steal food out of your campsite while you are cooking dinner. Get a map. Keep hitting the website for current conditions - Tioga Road may or may not be open by Memorial Day. The cables may or may not be up on Half Dome. They usually go up on Memorial Day weekend or slightly before. And plan to rent yourself a bear can and pack carefully to get all your food and hygeine product and trash into it.
Loop opportunities include the Hetch Hetchy area (Rancheria Falls, Tiltill, Lake Vernon and down through Beehive to the dam), the Buena Vista trail (several trailheads for this to make it a loop or a lollipop hike, probably gonna be lots of skeeters - doing the trail from Wawona or from Glacier Point road will be equally scenic), and a ton of options from Tioga Road which may or may not be open.