BEST Campground Near YOSEMITE National Park

BEST Campground Near YOSEMITE National Park

– We made it to the
other side of Yosemite. – Yep. – It was pretty treacherous. So we made it through Tioga pass, which is up to about an elevation of over 10,000 feet. Although I never saw it get that high. – (Phil) We were at about 9,600, right? – (Stacy) Yeah, was as high as we saw. And I read some horror stories about it, so I looked it up, I even YouTubed it, and watched people drive it, and I’m like, “Okay, that’s not too bad, we can handle that.”. – Yeah, I felt comfortable driving it. – Yeah, so, it actually wasn’t that bad. – No. – The road that was bad was the one before that. – Yeah, what was that, 49? – Yes – Highway 49? – Yes – Good gravy, I have never
hit so many switchbacks. You know up and down,
and then left and right, and U- turn, where it just never stopped. We were constantly turning and I was working that wheel, um, I should have Arnold
Schwarzenegger type guns um, after today. – I get asked all the
time about how we find water and dump stations and all
that when we’re boondocking and you can see, behind us, we stopped here to fill with water, and we’re gonna go down the street and dump at a Mobile gas station. So normally I use AllStays, or I’ll use a couple other tools, and I’ll put links down below for you, Sanidumps is one of them, that was a really, really good one for finding dump stations. You can also just call
up local campgrounds and see if you can dump and fill there for a charge. Usually, it’s like ten to twenty bucks. – This spot is about a mile
and a half from the campground. And the Mobile is probably another mile. – Half mile, not even that far. – Okay, so. – Down the road. – So, yeah about a four mile round trip back to the campground. Um, not too shabby. And we left the jeep
back at the campground to secure our spot. – Yeah. – Cause it’s first come first serve. So we found a decent spot, I think a really great spot, actually. – I think it’s awesome. – Um, for solar, because
there’s no hook-ups at all. Um, so we’ll be working
off of these blue skies. – That’s right. – I can’t wait. (dramatic music) – We’re gonna give you a
great view of the lake. But as you can see, there’s
not much of a view at all. – Yeah, the fires from up North, have uh, shifted winds and moved this way, um, and we’re just east of Yosemite, we’re at the Inyo National Forest, I-N-Y-O, and yesterday the smoke moved in, and it’s pretty, it’s
pretty hazy, pretty foggy. – Yeah, our first day here that lake was crystal clear and blue and just popped. It was gorgeous against the green now you can’t even see it. – Of course, it’s expected to get worse, so I guess the winds have shifted, and all the smoke’s coming this way. – We were all excited
to get up this morning and come outside and
have coffee by the rig and all this beauty. Check out all this behind us. And, and Phil peeked out the window, and this is what he discovered. – It was a bear, I just don’t know how we didn’t hear that. Look at that. He didn’t get in. So when it busted it probably scared him. – So, of course, just like the last time we had car issues, we are out in the middle of nowhere. We are just outside of Yosemite. Um, excuse my voice, we literally just got out of bed. Um, so we have to figure this out now. At least now we have air
conditioning, I guess. – Oh look, he was on the
other side trying to get in. Look at the, the window. – Oh man, and you know, the camp host told us when we got here there’s a lot of bear activity, to make sure there’s nothing in your car. And we went through the car
and took everything out. – Look, he, he pushed that down. Yeah, he busted this. Yeah, he was trying to pry it open. – So I wonder what he was smelling because we took everything out. – Look at, he scratched, he
scratched the sh*t out of that. (pop music) – I don’t care if I take it to the body. – (Indistinct chatter) – Is it all the way over here? – Yeah, yeah. – There we go. – First step in repairing the window is actually a better, temporary solution. – Yeah, that plastic rattling in my ear at 65 miles per hour sucked. – So these guys here at Collision, kindly are cutting the acrylic for us. We got the acrylic at ACE Hardware. So we’re gonna tape that
on for a temporary measure. And then they’re going to see about ordering a new window and replacing the whole window. – Yeah, but hopefully we, it doesn’t take three weeks to get it, because, as with everything these days, everything is on back order. – Yeah, and getting it? Eh, who knows. So we might be outside
of Yosemite forever. – Who knows? – At least it’s a good place to be. – Last year was super super crazy. – (Stacy) With the bears? – Yeah, with the bear, I think we had about fifteen, or seventeen claims, bear claims. – (Stacy) Wow. – Yeah, and a couple of the cars were completely destroyed. – (Stacy) That’s awful. – Yeah, where they get locked inside and they’ve got nowhere to go, so they try just tearing
through everything. – (Stacy) Oh. – I’m just gonna put it… just to kind of hold it. – Actually, let me see if I can get that molding to sit flush. – Otherwise, it’s not gonna. – Yeah, cause it won’t sit. Let me see. – It held pretty good
on that plastic bag. Because it pulled the paint off of this. – Yeah I saw. – There you have it,
one plexiglass window. It’s not trail rated yet,
nor is it bear rated, but it is noise rated. It is much, much quieter
than that flapping plastic. And, you don’t even know it’s there. – (Stacy) So what’s a person to do when they are waiting for
their window to be ordered? – You go get a cold beverage. – That’s right! See. You check out the local breweries. We’re at Mammoth Brewery. We were told it was really good. – That was two thumbs up from this guy. One satisfied customer. – Yeah, it was really good, so. – We had the best damn burger, and I gotta tell you, it was pretty damn good. – And that’s exactly what
it’s named by the way. – Yeah. It was a brisket burger, with Gouda cheese, and
bacon jam, and bacon. Oh ho ho, get in my belly. – Yeah, it was really good. And the beer was really good too, we both had a local Kolsch,
and it was delicious. (upbeat pop music) I know your wan, wha, bleh, leh, leh. – Yep, exactly. – So for those… – Mm-hm, yet again. – I heard you ask me just a minute ago what all these things are sticking up out of the lake, and it’s actually calcium
carbonate spires and knobs. – Say that three times. – I know, ha. Otherwise known as, they call them Tufa Towers? T-U-F-A? – Yeah, Tufa, toofa? Yeah,
Tufa towers sounds better. – So the minerals actually come down from the Sierra Mountains, um, when the snow melts, and just from the run off water, into the lake. And then as the lake water evaporates the minerals are all left behind so there’s not an outlet for this Lake, so it all stays. So this water is now two and a half times
more salty than the ocean and has a hundred times
more carbonate in it? – I think, I think that’s what you read. – Like baking soda. – Yeah – That’s what we’re talking about. It has a hundred times more in this lake than in the ocean, so. – Yeah, they say the birds have a hard time, once they hit the water, keeping their feet in the water, because they, they float
much higher above the water than they would in normal freshwater. – Yeah, the buoyancy is totally different, it’s even totally
different than the ocean, because there’s so much salt in it. So, that being said, that means we have to kayak the lake, cause we won’t sink like
we did in Lake Powell. – Yeah, that’s right, well
we don’t wanna test that, but we think we won’t sink. – We’re gonna go with that. – Yeah. – We are headed to the Post Office today. We have to drop off some
things for our Insiders and we have to pick up some, what is it, general?
General Delivery mail. – Yep. Local Post Office. This is the first time we’ve had to use a General Delivery at a Post Office, so hopefully it goes as planned. – All right, worked like a champ. So all you have to do is put your name, General Delivery, and the city and state and zip code of the Post Office you want it sent to, and boom, just like that. – Okay, I’m gonna take a
stop from editing here, just to make sure you guys don’t make the same mistake that we made. If you plan to use General Delivery, make sure you check the Post Office first, because not all Post Offices
accept General Delivery. After we left Lee Vining,
we attempted to send something to a Post Office and they returned it, so we actually had to pay shipping twice. If you want to know if the
Post Office close to you accepts General Delivery, all you have to do is go to their website and scroll down. If they accept General Delivery, it will say that, and have the address that you need to use. (slow music) The question is, will we be breathing
when we get to the top? – (laughter) Yeah, I’m already, my breathing’s already labored, uh, just walking around up here. We’re probably above 9,000 ft now. We are at, – Nope, not quite, 89. – Well there it said 9,000 feet, at the gondola. – Are you gonna raise, he’s raising it up. – Yeah, yeah, we’re close. – I don’t think that’s how you do it. That’s not a thing. We have to hop off this one and get on to oh wait, maybe not,
looks like we keep going. – Oh, I think so, yeah. – (guide) Hi guys, you’re halfway there, just stay put, you’ll be at the top in just a few minutes. – (Stacy) Okay, awesome, thanks. – So we’re not getting off. (slow music) – (Stacy) This is cool. – This is. We are on top of the world. – Unfortunately, you can see the smoke and the haze in our camera. So the views aren’t as
crisp as we would hope but they are still spectacular. – Yeah, they are, and
the temperature up here, not as cold as I thought it would be, it’s only about 63. – (Stacy) Yeah, I thought
it was gonna be much colder, I’m a little warmer with my jacket. I didn’t realize we could come to the top and hike all the way down. As you can see, I failed
on my research again. – Well, I, it probably
isn’t a bad hike going down. Whoa. – Whoa, its a little windy! – I would not want to hike this coming up. – This is the first time we’ve
ever been to a ski resort, and of course, it’s not
winter and there’s no snow. – Yeah, and I’m from Colorado, and I’ve never been to
one, what’s that tell you? – Obviously we don’t ski. – No, I, I’ve always wanted to try it but it’s not happening anytime soon. – I’m just not fond of cold,
snow, wet, falling, dying. But I, I would drink a hot toddy while Phil goes and skis. So all you skiers out there, if you know a great place, that has an awesome fireplace, and a little lounge
somewhere I can kick back, I’ll start my ski slope search from there. – (calm music) I didn’t realize Mammoth
Lakes was such a German town. There’s so many German
bakeries, and restaurants, and German influences everywhere. – We’re gonna go over and check it out. – What, oh, will you stop it. – Oh, this mics not coming. – Yeah, we took that one off. It didn’t help when the wind, the wind was blowing everything around. – Yodeler house. – Yeah, very German. – Yeah. Very Alpine-ish. – I bet they have some
good beer over there. – Oh you bet they do. – Maybe they have, what’s the one, where we, were at the Oktoberfest? – A Kolsch? – No, no when we were at Oktoberfest. – Oh, um, Hofbrau? – Yes, yes yes. – Good stuff. – (upbeat pop music)

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IN THIS EPISODE
BEST Campground Near YOSEMITE National Park: Are you looking for the best campground in Yosemite National Park? There are many beautiful campgrounds inside Yosemite National park but it is very hard to reserve a spot. Yosemite campsites fill up quickly. There is a lot of available camping outside Yosemite NP. Camping near Yosemite is just as beautiful as camping inside Yosemite. We found a beautiful dispersed camping site in the national forest just outside Yosemite NP. It is now our new favorite campground! We cant wait to go back! This is where to stay near Yosemite National Park!

🔗 LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE
TIOGA PASS: Can I Drive My RV Through Yosemite: https://youtu.be/GkBIdF9svHk
Epic Kayak Fail: https://youtu.be/BAupsFu620U
RV Tow Car Window Busted (HOW TO PROTECT YOUR CAR FROM A BEAR): https://youtu.be/NbFq5JdsqOg
Sanidumps: https://www.sanidumps.com/
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