Camping Swanking - June 28 - July 3

[Alex]

I won't be joining since I'm already committed to a Yosemite trip around the same time, but for those who haven't been, keep two things in mind:

1) You have to keep all your food in bear lockers so don't go crazy with what you bring, particularly if you're going to pack in the maximum people per campsite. Not all of the campgrounds have overflow community lockers you can use if you have too much (I don't recall Grant's Grove having any).

2) Grant's Grove I liked because it was relatively easy to get everywhere else of interest but other than a couple big trees there really isn't much right there (and I find big trees to be the least interesting part of the scenery around there). It does, however, have a full ranger station and a large amphitheater hosting (even early in the season, I presume) ranger programs. So overall we liked it and it wasn't a problem going without a reservation since we made sure one person in our party arrived early to stake out some space. That said, if you're going to need more than two campsites it can be difficult to find that many really nice ones consecutively (though you really only need one and the rest are for sleeping).

Also, I notice that iSm is presuming that someone else in the group will be getting up early so he can wake to the smell of coffee and bacon (I'm always an early riser when camping so I never wake up to the smell of food).