Four Yosemite campgrounds stay open this winter, and sleeping in your vehicle anywhere else is not allowed

Four Yosemite campgrounds stay open through the winter: Upper Pines, Hodgdon Meadow, Wawona and Camp 4. Everywhere else in the park, you cannot sleep in a car, van or RV. The park’s camping regulations page says it in one line: “Sleeping in vehicles is not permitted anywhere else in Yosemite.” Checked October 22, 2026.

The second rule matters most right now, because the high campgrounds are already closed for the year. On October 16 the park posted an alert that “overnight parking is not allowed on Tioga Road and Glacier Point Road, including all parking lots reachable from these roads.” A trailhead lot is not a fallback.

What is open, and how you get a site

Everything in this table comes from the park’s campground data and campground pages, read October 22, 2026.

Campground	Winter access in 2026	Fee	Rig limit
Upper Pines (Yosemite Valley)	Reservation required all year. About 90 sites in two loops in winter	$36	RVs 35 ft, trailers 24 ft
Hodgdon Meadow	First come, first served after reservations end October 26	$28	RVs 35 ft, trailers 30 ft
Wawona	Loop A only: reservations through November 29, then first come. Loops B and C close after October 26	$28 first come	RVs and trailers 35 ft
Camp 4 (Yosemite Valley)	Reservations one week ahead through November 29, then first come	$10 a night, per person on reservations	Tents only

Camp 4 is walk-in and tents only, and the park’s first-come page says sleeping in a vehicle there, “including RVs and trailers,” is not allowed. If you are in a van, Camp 4 is not your answer.

There are no hookups anywhere in the park. Upper Pines has a year-round dump station, Wawona’s is listed as seasonal, and Hodgdon Meadow and Camp 4 have none.

The limits that apply now

Yosemite caps camping at 30 nights in a calendar year. The tighter rule, 14 nights with only seven in Yosemite Valley or Wawona, runs May 1 to September 15 and does not apply in winter. Sites take six people and two motor vehicles, every vehicle on the pad. Generators run only 7 to 9 am, noon to 2 pm and 5 to 7 pm. How parkwide caps stack is covered in national park camping limits are parkwide.

Where the park’s own pages disagree

The main camping page, last updated September 11, 2026, still gives Camp 4’s reservation season as “April 18 through October 31, 2025.” The Camp 4 page, updated September 17, 2026, and the campground data both say reservations run to November 29 this year. We went with the newer, more specific page. The first-come page, last updated November 2025, says Wawona goes first come from “late October.” This year’s data keeps Loop A on reservations until November 29.

What to do

A first-come campground can still be full. The park says these campgrounds “can fill during holidays and weekends.” Arrive early in the day, and have a plan outside the park before you drive in, because the rule takes the roadside off the table. Our California free camping page covers the public land around the state.

Call 209/372-0266 for current campground status, the number the park gives for exactly this. Then read the posted sign at the kiosk. The sign and the ranger’s current word beat any website, ours included.

If you hold an Upper Pines reservation, nothing changes for you. If you are coming without one, Hodgdon Meadow after October 26 and Wawona Loop A after November 29 are the two that take an RV on a first-come basis.