my buddy and i are trying to get a non-reserve (first come first served) camping site for 5 days
i have never done this before so i have no idea what to do and where to go
i am going to stop by at the visitor center and gather as much information as possible
but i would like to hear real experiences from fatwalleters
we are most likely gonna do the trails and so on
i don't know what else is outthere
can you give me whatever information you have?
it will be very joyful to read them
thank you for your time
and good luck surviving this grizzling hot summer
killer!

There is an amazing amount of information for you, if you would just do a simple Google search.

Please review the FAQ's for the procedures on posting and revise your post accordingly.

Bw sure to indicate the research you have done and what you have found.

If you do not want to do any of your own research, go to www.thetripgeek.com and they will plan your trip for you.

Treatise said:Why didn't you want to spend your time looking through the 3,310,000 sites that Google brings up? Some people always want a quick answer.... sheesh!

Seriously though you can get a lot of basic information here.

Assuming that you are staying in yosemite valley, there are numerous trails that start from there, with varying levels of difficulty and time. (see here)

In the summer, the earlier you start, the less crowds you have to deal with on the trail. good luck!

Review 3,310,000 sites????

The website you linked was one of the first five hits in a search that took 30 seconds.

You might want to review some articles on how to perform a search.

i have been to the yosemite webpage and printed them out
i wanted to hear some of personal experiences instead of text book information
i guess some of the members have misunderstood the question
thank you all for your information and time
i really appreaciate it!!!!
thank you again
and i will review the faqs again
apologize for any inconvenience i have caused

i just got back from yosemite late last night. because it was was a holiday weekend it was extremely crowded. july is very crowded at yosemite because the waterfalls are still gushing and the merced river is still high enough for rafting.

walk-ins reservations are difficult to get. my suggestion is to get their very early. camp 4 offers walk-in reservations, but i'm not familiar with that site - i believe it's where the rock climbers stay. i saw a line of people lining up for camp reservations at 6 am at one end of the curry village parking lot, but i think that is for the upper pines, lower pines and north pines campsites.

for this trip i took a one-way bus up to glacier point and hiked down the 8.5 mile panorama trail from to the valley floor. it went past both nevada falls and vernal falls. my suggestion for a first time visit is that you hike up from happy isles to nevada falls. you'll be going up the mist trail to vernal falls, then continuing on to nevada falls. you'll walk right up to and at the edge of the waterfalls. the sights are spectacular! there were 100's and 100's of hikers on the trail since it was a holiday weekend so the trails were extremely crowded from nevada falls back down to happy isles. you'll be hiking up hundred of granite blocks so make sure you have good socks and shoes. surprisingly, people hike up and down wearing everything from hiking boots to flip flops.

i've hiked up to half dome 2 years ago and up past both vernal falls and nevada falls very early in the morning. this time i came down the trails past those falls during early afternoon in the full sun. what a difference in the colors! as hot as it may get during the afternoon, it is worth it to see the contrast of colors in the full sun.

i took 4 liters of water for my hike to half dome, and i took 3 liters for the panoramic trail hike, which was enough for me. you may need more or less water. some hikers brought a pump/filter, but i rather just carry the water and not depend on finding it. thanks to fw i bought a few camelbacks and playtpus packs for my kids to use. i took a backpack and threw everything in it.

have a good trip and good luck on finding a campsite. i usually make my reservations the first day the sites become available. i've stayed in housekeeping and curry village before, but not the camping sites yet. those sites are very hard to get.