2008 Camp Swank

[innerSpaceman]

Well, that was fun.



Lower Pines campground sold out in about 2.6 minutes. The only person who got through on the phone was swanie ... and of course, she was the only one not on our I.M. conference, and so communications did not extend to checking other Valley campgrounds while she was still on the line.

Le sigh.



Yosemite may be a cabin or lodge adventure from now on.



OR: There's the allure of White Wolf camp .... just 10 minutes outside the Valley and populated on a first-come, first-served basis. It's a big campground, and I've never experienced problems getting several adjacent sites there on a just-show-up basis.

Of course that was in the days when it took a ful 16 minutes for Lower Pines to sell out.
Things might be a little trickier now, and in the high season especially. Dunno for sure.



The other avenues we are exploring are:

1) A Group Campsite at King's Canyon. Katiesue is faxing a request this morning, and there appear to be sites available.

2) Regular campsites at Sheep Creek campground in King's Canyon. Not Afraid, €uroMeinke, Nirvanaman and myself scoped this place out at the tail end of last Swank Camp and there are some killer campsites near the river. This is also (as are all King's Canyon campgrounds) a first-come, first-served situation. We'd have the same chance as anyone else, and this campground is vast ... if the coolest sites were to already be taken.


* * * * *

When you try to get a slew of campsites first-come, first-served, you really have to be first-come. You show up at the crack of dawn on a weekday when demand for new sites is lowest, and basically wait in line at the campground entrance until noon ... and then see what's available.


I think that strategy can work almost as well at White Wolf in Yosemite as it can at Sheep Creek in King's Canyon. And I'm alarmed that, absent some fantastic stroke of luck .... camping in Yosemite Valley is apparently a thing of the past. Certainly it's not going to happen for a handful of campsites.

And so, White Wolf will remain the only viable camping option for Yosemite, whether we have swank camp there this season or some other.





What says any of youse??