Yosemite Reservations

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Camping just south of Yosemite
This information is taken from the Forest Service website.

Thank you to the Forest Service for this handy information.

Summerdale Campground
Elevation 5,000′
Setting Campground is located on Big Creek; 1.5 miles south of Yosemite National Park south entrance. Good shade.
Directions From Fresno, take Highway 41 to Oakhurst; continue north 12 miles to campground entrance.

Reservations
Contact the National Recreation Reservation Service at 1-877-444-6777
Reservations must be made at least 3 days in advance. 2 Night Minimum on weekends. 3 Night Minimum on holidays.

Road Access Paved
Total Campsites 29
Walk-In Campsites None
Max. Vehicle Length 24′
Max. Length of Stay 14
Max. Group Size 6 per site
Water Yes, piped - please boil water.
Restrooms Yes, vault
Tables Yes
Stoves Grills & fire rings
Fee

$19.00 per night

Additional $5.00 fee for extra vehicle
Season of Use June - November
Services Available at Fish Camp
Site Manager California Land Management - Host –Jake Sexton
Special Firewood may be purchased at host site.

USDA Forest Service - Sierra National Forest

DATE WITH A MODEL: ANTIQUE CARS LET IN YOSEMITE’S BEAUTY
Guy Keeler
Fresno Bee
25 August 2007
Every day is the Roaring `20s at the Tin Lizzie Inn, where the garage is full of Model T and Model A Fords and David Woodworth will teach you to drive them.
Woodworth and his wife, Sheran, who opened their bed-and-breakfast in June, also rent antique cars for people to drive into Yosemite National Park.
Model T Tours operates like a regular car rental company. If you’re 21 and have a valid driver’s license and auto insurance, you can rent a Model T or Model A. Rates are $250 for a half-day and $400 for a full day.
The old cars, all restored originals dating from the teens and 1920s, are well suited for area trails because of their high ground clearance. And since all are either roadsters or touring cars with open tops, they also are perfect for viewing Yosemite’s imposing granite walls, which often are blocked by the roofs of modern cars.
“It was a fantastic experience,” says Paul Arlin of Covina, Calif., who rented a 1929 Model A a few weeks ago for a trip to Yosemite Valley with his wife, Tammar. “I’ve spent a lot of time in national parks behind the wheel of a car, but the Model A gives it a completely different flavor. You feel like you’re stepping back in time and you can relax and enjoy the scenery.”
Drivers and passengers in the old cars also become part of the scenery when they venture onto the highway.
“People would honk and wave at us but they were very courteous,” Arlin says. “When we stopped, they would come up and ask questions.”
Britt Anderson of Los Gatos, Calif., had a similar experience on a recent trip to Glacier Point and back in a 1928 Model A with his wife, Karyn, and sons Braden, 13, and Justin, 16.
“It’s surprising how far technology in cars has come,” he says. “It was a real eye-opener to drive one of these old cars. They’re low-powered and you have to work with them going uphill. I was surprised at the number of people who wanted to have their pictures taken with the car.”
More than 15 million Model T Fords were built between 1908 and 1927, when the Model A came out, and David Woodworth says the sturdy little workhorse is one of the most significant cars ever built.
“The Model T opened up the world to people,” he says. “Before then, most lived and died within 50 miles of the place of their birth.”
By producing a car the masses could afford, Henry Ford put the horse and buggy out to pasture and created a wanderlust limited only by road conditions and the amount of gas in a car’s tank.
Woodworth says driving a Model T or Model A gives people a chance to experience a slice of early motoring history.
“And after you’ve rented one, you’ll probably love your current car even more,” he says with a chuckle.
Driving a Model T is a bit tricky. There is no gear shifter and no gas pedal. The accelerator is attached to the steering column like a modern turn signal lever and the gears are activated by foot pedals.
“You drive the car with your feet,” Woodworth says.
The Model T has two forward gears and three pedals. Push the pedal on the left to the floor and you move forward in low. Let it up all the way and you’re in high.
Pushing the middle pedal to the floor puts the car in reverse, but only if you’ve got the left pedal in neutral, halfway to the floor. By the way, if you need to stop, the brake pedal is on the far right. Hope you’ve got enough feet.
“When in doubt, push everything,” Woodworth quips.
Actually, driving a Model T is much easier than it sounds. Most people quickly get the hang of it after taking lessons from Woodworth in the parking lot at the nearby Tenaya Lodge.
“We’ve been renting cars since 1999 and I’ve only had three people who didn’t feel comfortable driving one,” he says.
John Puffer of Wilbraham, Mass., drove both a Model T and a Model A during a July visit to Yosemite.
“I had a great time,” he says. “Unlike modern cars, with the Model T you’ve got to be thinking all the time about what your feet are doing. The hardest part was putting it in reverse. I stalled it out more than once.”
The Model A has a three-speed transmission with a floor shifter and clutch that is less confusing to operate. But drivers who are used to revving up their engines before shifting gears may have some trouble getting used to how the Model A moves from low to high at much lower speeds.
The top speed limit in Yosemite is 45 mph, and many sections are posted for 35 mph or less. Woodworth says top speed for a Model T is around 30-35 mph, while a Model A can reach 50 mph.
Woodworth, a retired Baptist minister and real estate investor, got interested in old cars while collecting tent trailers and motor homes dating from the teens, 1920s and `30s. He thought it would be a good idea to own an antique car to pull his old trailers and bought a 1928 Model A 40 years ago.
The trailer and motor home collection, which Woodworth recently sold to the Recreational Vehicle and Manufactured Housing Hall of Fame and Museum in Elkhart, Ind., led to a job as national historian for the recreational vehicle industry. For the past 16 years, Woodworth has traveled around the country, doing media interviews and making public appearances to talk about RV history.
Woodworth has made six cross-country trips in his Model A, and one year, while passing through Lancaster, Pa., he became fascinated by the Amish buggies he saw on the road. He thought motorists might have the same fascination with Model T cars, and decided renting them would be a good hobby business for someone who loves history and nostalgia as much as he does.
The Woodworths designed and built the Tin Lizzie Inn with the cars in mind. There is room for eight in the ground-floor garage. Woodworth owns 10 - eight Model T’s and two Model A’s - and hopes to add two more Model A’s to round out his fleet.
Woodworth does most of the maintenance himself, and recently put a new engine and radiator in his 1928 Model A. Several companies make replacement parts for the old cars, which makes it easier to keep them running.

“You’re always adjusting things,” Woodworth says. “You’re lubing and tightening up nuts and bolts.”
While drivers are on their own once they leave the Tin Lizzie Inn, Woodworth provides them with satellite phones they can use if the cars develop mechanical problems.
“One time, an ignition wire came loose and a car wouldn’t start,” he says. “Another time, a guy ran out of gas. The Model T has no gas gauge. You can get about 150 miles to a tank of gas, which is usually plenty for a trip to Yosemite. But this guy drove all over. He was coming home and going up a hill about five miles from here when the engine quit.”
Woodworth says Model T’s with less-than-full tanks were notorious for getting starved for gas on uphill climbs.
Depending on the slope, he says, Model T drivers used to call steep grades either “seven-gallon” or “five-gallon” hills, referring to the amount of fuel needed in the tank to maintain adequate gas flow to the engine.
Woodworth installed electric fuel pumps to reduce the fuel pressure problems in his cars. He also added distributors and different brakes, but has kept everything else in line with original equipment to make the driving experience as authentic as possible.
“Renting one of these cars gives people a chance to build memories in a unique way,” he says. “How many people can say ‘I’ve driven a real Model T’?”

YOSEMITE’S CAMPS CAN OFFER GREAT LATE-SUMMER GETAWAYS
Karen Ostrow
Nevada Appeal
21 September 2007
An almost last-minute whim led a friend and me to try for reservations at one of the Yosemite High Sierra Camps the week before they close for the season Sunday.
We were successful - in fact there were spaces at the three camps still open: Glen Aulen, May and Sunrise. Two others, Vogelsang and Merced, had closed the weekend before. We chose to reserve two midweek nights at Sunrise, the plan being to hike about 15 miles to Cloud’s Rest and back on the second day.
After a two-hour drive to Lee Vining, Calif., from South Lake Tahoe, we made the ascent to Tuolumne Meadows and drove another eight miles to the Tenaya Lake/Sunset trail head. The first mile and a half of the trail is a relatively modest stroll through a forest of mostly lodgepole pines, but then things get serious. The trail ascends a steep, rocky slope for another mile and we were very happy to reach the top of the ridge. Straight ahead in another four and a half miles is Cloud’s Rest, but we turned left on the trail to Sunrise lakes.
There are three Sunrise lakes: Lower, middle and upper. The trail descends to Lower Sunrise Lake where people were swimming off the rocks that line the shore and several inviting lakeside camp sites were occupied. We climbed gradually to Middle Sunrise Lake, which is off the main trail and a bit more secluded. Next came a steeper climb to Upper Sunrise, which looked pretty muddy on the trail side, but sandy on the far bank where we saw large green tarps housing members of the California Conservation Corps, who were doing trail work in the vicinity.
The trail then goes up and over a ridge to Sunrise High Sierra Camp, about four and a half miles from the Tenaya trail head.
We had opted go whole hog on this trip, tent cabin with blankets and wood stove, breakfast and dinner included. As always in the mountains, we carried clothing for all weather, lunch for two days, water and water filter and sleeping bags just in case - not a full-size pack, but still about 23 pounds of gear. Sunrise camp is at 9,400 feet and we were feeling the altitude when we arrived. Due to the lack of snowpack and summer rain, the camp didn’t have enough water for showers, but there was warm water, solar-heated in large black plastic pillows, for washing up. Bottled drinking water was provided.
Dinner was a four-course surprise: soup, salad, crumbed halibut with broccoli, cauliflower, roasted potatoes and camp-baked bread with cake for dessert. Hot beverages, including cocoa, tea and coffee, were on offer as well. Many of our fellow campers had started their trek at Glen Aulen, then hiked to May Lake and on to Sunrise, a great three-night trip. Because it was late in the season, no ranger was on hand for an after-dinner campfire program, but one of the camp staffers played his repertoire of two songs for a singalong. “Margaritaville” and “16 Tons,” if you must know.
We watched the Alpenglow on the mountains to the west of Long Meadow after dinner and then the stars came out. We don’t get to see the Milky Way at Lake Tahoe except when there’s a power outage due to light pollution from the casinos, but it’s still up there.
Sunrise Camp was built in the 1960s with half the funds coming from Mary Curry Tresidder, who had been camping there with her husband since the late 1930s. We could understand why she was so fond of the spot, a lovely meadow surrounded by rocky monoliths. The park’s guardians have been working hard to restore this meadow, which had been trampled by too many feet over the years, and it is recovering well.

After breakfast (hot cereal, fresh fruit, a giant omelet, bacon and pancakes), we staggered off up the trail we’d come in on and, at the junction, went left toward Cloud’s Rest. The trail descends for a half mile to a wooded area and a small lake where you can filter water if necessary. Then it begins a gradual climb up to Cloud’s Rest at 9,800 feet. There’s a rocky ridge to negotiate at the top, which we reached in about two hours, and then the most glorious 360-degree view you can imagine - granite domes and slabs wherever you look.
The most dramatic view is of Half Dome below to the northwest. We wished for the binoculars I’d forgotten to pack to see if anyone was climbing the chains. We could also see Tenaya Lake far below to the northeast along with Matterhorn Peak and the Sawtooth Range.
We planned to take an alternate route back to Sunrise camp, taking a connector trail to the John Muir Trail. But we had foolishly forgotten to put a map in our day packs and the connector trail, supposedly 2.5 miles long kept descending and seemed longer than advertised, so we were happy to come upon a group of backpackers who assured us that the Muir junction was only 200 feet ahead. It was, but we had descended at least 1,500 feet, and guess what we had to do to get back to camp?
The trail was pretty easy for the first three miles with views toward the Merced River and its granite slabs shining in the sunlight. Then we ascended a steep, rocky, never-ending ridge to 9,600 feet with a quick descent back to Long Meadow and our camp. We would have liked a shower that night, but were happy enough just for warm water to wash in. The weather had turned and it was cold after dinner (soup, salad, pork cutlets with green beans, mushrooms and sweet potatoes, and cookies) so we were justified in bringing our sleeping bags.
We hiked out on the Cathedral Lake trail the next day, about eight miles. The trail first goes over a ridge, then through a long meadow to the lovely Cathedral lakes and needle-sharp Cathedral Peak. We met several backpackers on the way to the lakes for the weekend and were happy we had chosen midweek for our trip. A final three-mile downhill took us to Tioga Road, where we caught the park’s shuttle back to our car at Tenaya Lake.
We hiked about 30 miles, got plenty dusty, ate good food, saw great scenery and highly recommend this circuit for a great late summer getaway