Traveling to Yosemite from SF for a 3 day visit in mid May. Yosemite Lodge is booked (and no waiting list..suggested to "keep trying"), would prefer a room rather than tent cabins at Curry (might be chilly then and not heated), Wawonna (sp.?) is too far, and though there are a few spots available at Ahwahnee, seems cost-prohibitive. Any suggestions as to places to stay? Any experience with Yosemite View Lodge in El Portal? Is it reasonably close to the park to make it worthwhile to commute? Don't want to spend too much time on the road. Main interest is day hiking and photography. Any help appreciated...am totally unfamiliar with this area. phil

Phil -- Don't give up trying on the Lodge. This year I got rooms there as cancelations start coming in a few weeks before. I did it on line -- just bookmarked the site and checked routinely. Do it for one day at a time ie if you want three nites dont expect you will luck into all three at once. Try for just one nite, then the next etc as seperate records. In fact its possible one or 2 of the nites you need are avail now if you do it this way. I used the same technique the year before to get rooms in Yellowstone. Just book a back up now that you can cancel a few days before. MANY people snatch the rooms when they are availavble a year earlier because thats the only way to get em. Then plans change and lots of cancellations come thru. It a GREAT place enjoy it. Be aware in Mid may the roads to Tioga and to Glacier Pt will probably be closed -- they were this year until early June. But the falls will be at their strongest

Don

I with bigdog50, keep trying! Also you might check the cabins at Curry village. It's my understanding that they have heat.

Utahtea

The Yosemite View Lodge is fine. It's actually closer to Yosemite Valley than many of the in-park facilities. It's a picturesque drive of about 13 miles.We stayed there for five days and we found it very convenient.

The one problem with El Portal, for us anyway, it's not a town: no restaurants, except for at the 2 motels, Yosemite View and Cedar Lodge.

I'm also w/ BigDog on this one. Try for one or two nights of your stay at Yosemite lodge. You might get lucky - especially if one or more of your nights are weekends. The weekday(s) might be available now. Then book the other night(s) at El Portal - you can always cancle there if Yosemite Lodge opens up for your entire stay.

We will be in Yosemite this May as well. Bigdog is right that a lot of people make reservations as soon as they are availible to get the dates they want. We have a big group that goes every year and that's exactly what we do.

We stay in the Housekeeping Camp, which are tent cabins along the river. They are different from Curry Village. They are more spread out and each cabin has an outside area with picnic table, fire pit, and a couple countertops. It's a lot like camping since you bring (or rent) your bedding, can cook out, and have a camp fire - you just don't sleep in a tent

The tent cabins at Curry Village are pretty much just for sleeping. You buy your meals at Curry Village or in Yosemite Village. And I do believe they have heaters.

In May, the weather is variable - last year we were chilly in the mornings but in shorts considering a swim in the Merced by the afternoon.

If you want to stay in the valley, keep checking the website at www.yosemitepark.com. They get cancellations all the time, especially as the date approaches. Also, in case you're interested, Curry Village has, in addition to tent cabins, heated log cabins. They're sparse, but adequate, and heated! I just stayed in one in Nov. Curry also has a tiny (12 room?) Motel.

Have found dealing with hotels that if you call directly as well as check on-line you sometimes get different results. Checked the web site and was told they were sold out. Called property directly and had no problems. They could not explain the difference either.

Thanks for all your suggestions! I will keep checking online daily. The days I am looking for are all weekdays, and I have tried them individually as suggested, but they're still booked up. I will also try calling weekly and see if the online/phone availabilities vary. However, I think I will go ahead and grab the spots available in El Portal in the meantime. I figured the roads in Yosemite might still be snowed in, but I am heading to SF for the Bay-To-Breakers run, and the week before is my only opportunity to check out the NP. Plus I thought the crowds might be 'slightly' less at this time as opposed to later such as June. Will there still be trails to hike without snowshoes?

Most definitely you will be able to hike without snowshoes. Unless there is a freak snow storm, there wont be snow on the roads in the valley and probably no snow anywhere in the valley. The elevation is only about 4000ft. The road closures will be at higher elevations.

You are correct that there will be fewer people in the valley in May than in June. There will still be plenty of people around, but not as many as in the summertime.

May is a great time to see the waterfalls flowing at their peak.

When you book at Yosemite View be sure to choose the River view rooms-right on the Merced River-and I would go for the 3rd floor. From there you can have your coffee on you private balcony and watch the sun light up the valley-we loved it!
R5

Another recommendation for river view rooms at the Yosemite View - some of the ground floor rooms have hot-tub/bath-tubs which we found very enticing. Also pools and hot-tubs outside and the drive up to the park is short but scenic. No night time atmosphere to speak of though.

Kepp calling the Yosemite Lodge. I made my reservations 10 months in advance and found out I needed to add another day. I called weekly for about 4 months and about 10 days before we were leaving for our trip, I was able to get the reservation I needed. Bottom line is there is a cancellation deadline policy so people do bail out at the last minute. I think the Lodge is the best location to stay so I would recommend being persistent.

Tioga Pass might still be snowed in, but the other roads will be open. We've been many times in April and I wore shorts on our hikes. We've also been in mid-May and had a couple of inches of snow fall, but it melts fast and no need for chains or snow gear.

Utahtea