So I'm heading out to Yosemite in mid-May to climb at all. I'm flying into Fresno on Sunday afternoon before my partner(s) who will have the rental car arrive on Monday.

Say I arrive in the Valley at 5pm Sunday (May 16). Is there any chance at all of still getting a Camp 4 spot? Right now the safe thing to do seems to reserve a room for Sunday night at Curry and getting up early to line up for Camp 4 the next morning, but I'm reluctant to shell out $60 for that one night at Curry.

I'm an alpinist so I'm willing to suffer for a bit. Some options I'm considering are:
1. Do an urban bivy at one of the picnic benches. If I leave my sleeping bag in the pack and just sleep in my puffy, can I pretend to be chilling out and not get fined? I don't mind curling up in a corner somewhere either.

2. Hike up to, say, the P3 ledge of Manure Pile and sleep there. I know that no permits are required for big-wall bivys, but are the regulations specific enough to exclude me bivying on a short route?

There are lots of tried and true methods, but the generally accepted opinion is that it's not a good idea to post too much of this info on the web lest the tools learn those same tactics, bivy spots (if they don't know already). Shoot me a private email and I'll fill you in on what's worked for me.

Yep, Sunday evening should be ok at C4, though mornings are always the most reliable time to get a spot.

Lot's of OB camping going on in the Valley, and the rangers already know it. They know all the usual spots too. The thing is, they don't have time to go out and check each night, nor do they want to. As long as your'e out of sight, and pack away your sleeping gear as soon as you wake (and don't sleep in), you should be safe. I'd recommend El Cap meadow, or that vicinity.

One guy camped at the base of El Cap for months and months, a few years ago...had a big messy camp, fixed lines hanging off the cliff many pitches up, with a huge cluster of junk at the high point. It took forever for the rangers to do anything.

I also knew a guy who lived in a cave behind C4 for a whole summer. Well, he spent most of his time on El Cap, so not too many nights in the cave. It was pretty grim in there. Pitch black, day or night. Though nice and cool on hot days. Some creepy bugs though

Oh yeah, put your food in a bear box, or you'll get woken in the middle of the night by yogi.

I'm sure someone who all ready has a site would be willing to take $20 off of you so you can throw your sleeping bag down for the night.

Leave the urban alpinism to the pros.

zodis wrote:My, how things have changed. I remember visiting Yosemite as a boy in the late 1960's and early 1970's. There were hundreds of hippies, panhandlers, bums, and sundry vagrants all over the place. They were camped out in the rocks, in the woods, by the river, everywhere. I don't know what the rangers were doing about it then. It was out of control, and rather entertaining.

YA MON I WAS ONE O' THEM VAGRANTS. Life was so-o-o-o-o good as park bum.