Tuolumne Meadows Campground is OPEN!

Yes, and the sites sold out within seconds. Not only did the Recreation.gov site crash during the launch, but the information about the campgrounds was also somewhat misleading. Still, it's open, and we were able to get a single night there in August.

I was up in time to log onto rec.gov long before the 7 a.m. launch time, and waiting carefully to time my submission for a campsite. That one failed. But I quickly pivoted to another site, and managed to score one in the same area. With some luck, we'll land a backpacking permit for the following day and spend a couple of more days in the park.

From what we have read, the campground has had major upgrades all the way around, which is great. We noticed huge stacks of new bear boxes when we walked through the area in 2023, and got a sense of what a big project it was.

Finally, after two years of work, all the campgrounds in the park are now open again.

Now if we can only get those knuckleheads in DC to fund the staffing of our national parks, we might have a pretty good summer.