Upper Pines is the night that decides this trip. It is the only Valley campground open all year, and its sites go up on Recreation.gov five months ahead, on the 15th of the month at 7 a.m. Pacific, then disappear in the first few minutes. Book the site first and the van second. There is no first-come camping in the park from mid-April through October, so a camper without a reservation has nowhere legal to spend the night.
With the site locked, the Valley is a short walk and a shuttle ride from the door. El Capitan lifts straight off its meadow with climbers hanging as specks on the wall, Yosemite Falls drops in three stacked tiers above Cook's Meadow, and the Mist Trail climbs the granite past Vernal and Nevada Falls. The falls are loudest in May and June. By August, Yosemite Falls is often down to a trickle, though Bridalveil runs all year.
Campervans have an easier time here than the big rigs. Only eight Valley sites take a 40-foot RV, which is why a larger RV narrows the trip and a van does not. A camper drops onto the paved spurs at any of the Pines.
Tuolumne Meadows and Tioga Road
The high country is the second trip, and it only exists while Tioga Road is open. Tuolumne Meadows spreads out at 8,600 feet, the river winding through subalpine grass below Lembert Dome, Tenaya Lake ringed by domes down the road, Olmsted Point staring back at Half Dome from the east. Tuolumne Meadows Campground is the night up here.
It opens weeks after the road does and closes early. As of August 2026, Tioga opens to all traffic on May 15 and the campground runs July 1 to September 27. Fill the tank before you climb, because there is no gas in Tuolumne Meadows or the Valley, only at Wawona, Crane Flat, and El Portal.
Glacier Point
Glacier Point puts you on a railing 3,214 feet straight above Curry Village, Half Dome level with your eye and the Valley floor dropping away below. It is a day trip, not a night. Drive up, walk the short paved path, catch Vernal and Nevada Falls from Washburn Point, then sleep back down in the Valley. The road past Sentinel Dome allows RVs 30 feet and shorter with no trailers, so a camper is fine and anything longer parks below.
Mariposa Grove
Down near the south entrance, Mariposa Grove holds hundreds of mature sequoias, the Grizzly Giant and the Bachelor and Three Graces among them along the Big Trees Loop. When the road is open a free shuttle runs from the Welcome Plaza, whose lot fills by late morning, and the grove road is 21 feet with no trailers. Base at Wawona Campground near the entrance if you want to walk the grove first thing.
Farther afield
Sequoia and Kings Canyon are about four hours south by CA-41 and CA-180, a loop that bases out of Fresno on the Fresno campervan page. Over Tioga to the north, Lake Tahoe and Donner are a Truckee run, covered on the Truckee campervan page. Yosemite anchors the Sierra on our California campervan hub.