According to some people posting online, camp 4 was noisy and not very friendly. Parked cars were hit and dented by others. Some site were overran with screaming kids.
I found it totally different.
My first impression was what I read online might be true. There were family campers and kid on bikes. But they were nice and quiet.
Those young rock climbers were quick to suggest where I can pitch my tent. They also quickly cleared out the locker assigned to me. They also left me the whole picnic bench (there were only two in my site).
Talked to a young Asian climber and he told me that this was end of climbing season. That was why it was easy to get a spot on Friday. I noticed many climbers were leaving despite nice weather coming in Saturday and Sunday.
I took off to take photos and did not returned to camp until it was dark. My "site mates" were preparing their dinners. I guessed their primary goal was to get enough calories for the climbs. They dined on hotdogs topped with macaroni and cheese. It was entertaining to hear about their day of climbing.
Other campers were either having their dinners or had already done. Most gather around the fires and quietly chatted about their day, I guess, since I could barely hear their voices.
About 3AM I was awakened by "non-human" noise. It turned out a bear was digging through a backpack belonging to one of the climbers. I shouted and shone my flash light. It took off. I guess later the bear went to the bathroom since someone came out and screamed.
The next day while having my coffee a fellow from the next site said he heard the same thing, but was too tired to chase it away. He said he had seen bobcats, bears, deers, etc. at camp 4. Sure enough, a female deer and three younglings came and checked out my table.
Again I left to take photos. Got a couple beers and hiked to Mirror lake to enjoy the view at end of the day.
When I got back it was around 7 or 8PM. My camp mates were still not back. Half drunk and too tired to cook dinner, I just dozed off for about 30 minutes on the picnic bench. It was really quiet. One could hear light laughter from other sites or sound of people walking back and forth.
My camp mates returned and tonight they had hamburgers topped with macaroni and cheese! They must have liked mac and cheese a lot.
I had my dinner and open a bottle of red. I offered it to them and they kind of like it, since they already admitted they were not into wines, however, they finished the bottle for me.
We had pleasant chat with other campers around our camp fire, with fire wood donated by a camper who was leaving that morning and did not want to haul it back home. I stayed and talked with them until midnight.
The next morning I woke up early to leave for home. My camp mates found out they were out of coffee. I gave them Vietnamese instant 3-in-1 coffees. They had never had it. Some took out their Iphones and took pictures of the coffee package so they can try to buy it when they get home.
The Asian climber noticed my last name on the tent and identified himself as Vietnamese also. He was was wishing for a bowl of hot Vietnamese noodle beef soup. He has not had it for a while. I gave him some instant Thai noodle, instant rice, freeze dried vegie and showed him how to put them together. He was a happy camper. We said goodby since they would stay there another couple days.
I really like camp 4. All the people I talked to were very nice. Did not hear any screaming kids. The facility is clean and I don't have to pump water.
The only thing I don't like is I have to be there early for a spot.
![[Yosemite]](../images/yosemiteicon.png)
