Where to Stay Near Yosemite: A Hiker’s Guide to Every Entrance, From Valley Hotels to Budget Cabins
Stay inside Yosemite Valley if you want zero drive time to the Mist Trail and Half Dome trailheads. Stay in El Portal or Groveland if you’d rather spend less and don’t mind a 20- to 45-minute drive each morning. And if you were planning to split the difference at the historic hotel near the South Entrance, you need a new plan: it’s been closed indefinitely since December 2024, with no reopening date announced as of this writing. I’ll walk through where to stay near Yosemite, area by area, plus where camping saves you money and where it just costs you sleep.
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Key takeaways:
- Zero commute, highest price: The Ahwahnee and Yosemite Valley Lodge sit directly on the Valley floor, an easy walk from the Mist Trail and Half Dome trailheads. Curry Village, a few hundred yards away, is the budget-friendlier third option in the same location.
- Skip the Wawona Hotel for now: It’s closed indefinitely for a National Park Service structural assessment. Tenaya at Yosemite in Fish Camp, 2 miles from the South Entrance, is the closest practical alternative.
- Best value for the money: Yosemite View Lodge in El Portal, 2 miles outside the Arch Rock Entrance, runs roughly half the nightly rate of in-Valley rooms.
- Best base for Hetch Hetchy and the high country: Rush Creek Lodge or Evergreen Lodge near Groveland, both a short drive from the Big Oak Flat Entrance.
- Book early or camp: In-Valley rooms and Yosemite Valley campsites for July and August routinely sell out 5 to 12 months ahead.
| Where to stay | Closest to | Drive to Yosemite Valley | Price tier | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yosemite Valley (Ahwahnee, Yosemite Valley Lodge, Curry Village) | Mist Trail & Half Dome trailheads | 0 min (walkable) | $$–$$$$ | Pre-dawn Half Dome and Mist Trail starts |
| Fish Camp / Wawona area | South Entrance & Mariposa Grove | 30–45 min | $$–$$$ | Giant sequoias, a quieter pace |
| El Portal | Arch Rock Entrance | 20–30 min | $–$$ | Budget motels close to the Valley |
| Groveland | Big Oak Flat Entrance | 25 min–1 hr | $$–$$$ | Hetch Hetchy and Tuolumne Meadows access |
| Camping (Pines campgrounds, Hodgdon Meadow, Wawona) | Varies by campground | 0–45 min | $ | Tightest budgets, earliest trailhead starts |
Inside Yosemite Valley: the Ahwahnee and Yosemite Valley Lodge put you at the trailhead
Key features. Two National Park Service concessioner properties sit right on the Valley floor. The Ahwahnee is a National Historic Landmark built in 1927, with a soaring dining hall and granite-cliff views, with rooms currently running from around $350 a night in the winter shoulder season up toward $700-plus in peak summer. If you are visiting during this quieter period for winter exploring in Yosemite, be sure to check road closures and gear requirements beforehand.
Yosemite Valley Lodge is the more affordable of the two, with published rates starting closer to $190–500 depending on season.
A third, cheaper option sits a short walk from both: Curry Village (still officially called Curry Village, after a brief 2016–2019 rebrand to “Half Dome Village” during a trademark dispute), which mixes motel rooms, hard-sided cabins, and canvas tent cabins near the Mist Trail/Half Dome trailhead at Happy Isles. All three are covered directly in our guide to the best hiking trails in Yosemite National Park.
Best for. Anyone attempting the Mist Trail, Half Dome, or another valley-floor trailhead who wants zero drive time between bed and boots. That matters most if you’ve drawn a Half Dome cable permit: the preseason lottery runs every March, with results in mid-April, and I’d rather walk to a 5 a.m. trailhead than fight Valley parking that fills by mid-morning; our permits guide covers the lottery timing in full.
Book Valley-floor rooms 6 to 12 months out for summer weekends. Rates and parking are the trade-off here: you’re paying a premium for the walk, and reservations for July and August routinely sell out by early spring.
Wawona: why the historic hotel is off the table right now, and what to book instead
Key features. The Wawona Hotel, a Victorian-era National Historic Landmark near the park’s South Entrance and Mariposa Grove, closed on December 2, 2024, so the National Park Service could conduct what it calls a comprehensive condition assessment after a roof replacement project uncovered deeper structural issues.
As of August 2026, it’s still closed with no announced reopening date; I checked the official park page directly before writing this, and it’s still listed as temporarily closed.
(Quick note: it was briefly rebranded “Big Trees Lodge” from 2016 to 2019 over a trademark dispute with the outgoing concessioner, but the name reverted to Wawona Hotel in 2019, so don’t be thrown by older articles still using that name.)
With the hotel out of the picture, the practical base for this entrance is Tenaya at Yosemite in Fish Camp, a resort property 2 miles from the South Entrance along Highway 41, with lodge rooms, cottages, and freestanding Explorer Cabins.
The smaller Narrow Gauge Inn sits right next door, and Wawona itself still has a handful of vacation-rental cabins if you’d rather stay in the immediate area.
Best for. Visitors prioritizing the giant sequoia groves and South Entrance access over Valley-floor trails. The trade-off is real, though: you’re swapping a 19th-century veranda for a modern mountain resort, not a like-for-like replacement. Mariposa Grove sits just minutes up the road, and the trails around it are covered in our Mariposa County trail guide, including the Yosemite South Entrance trail roundup.
El Portal: budget-friendly lodging just outside the Arch Rock Entrance
Key features. El Portal is a small community along Highway 140, just outside the Arch Rock Entrance. Yosemite View Lodge sits about 2 miles from the entrance gate, right on the Merced River, with rates that run meaningfully below in-Valley pricing.
Cedar Lodge is another 7 miles or so farther west along the same highway, typically cheaper still, with a smaller bed-and-breakfast and an RV park rounding out the options. From either, it’s roughly a 20- to 30-minute drive into Yosemite Valley once you’re through the gate.
Best for. Budget-conscious visitors willing to trade a short daily drive for meaningfully lower lodging costs than the Valley floor. It’s also one of the few year-round entrances along with Big Oak Flat, so El Portal stays a viable base even outside summer.
The honest downside is that Highway 140 backs up like any other entrance on a peak summer morning, so plan to be through the gate before 8 a.m. if you’re chasing an early trailhead.
Groveland: affordable access via the Big Oak Flat Entrance
Key features. Groveland is a historic Gold Rush-era town on Highway 120, serving as the gateway to the Big Oak Flat Entrance. Rush Creek Lodge sits just a few minutes from that entrance and offers direct access to the Hetch Hetchy and Tuolumne Grove trails covered in our Tuolumne County guide.
Its sister property, Evergreen Lodge, sits closer still to Hetch Hetchy itself, about a mile outside that entrance. The town of Groveland is farther out (20-plus miles from the Big Oak Flat gate) but has more budget motel inventory if the resort-style lodges are outside your range.
Best for. Hikers planning meaningful time on the Hetch Hetchy, Merced Grove, or Tuolumne Grove trails, or heading east toward the Tuolumne Meadows trails once the season allows it.
Tioga Road is seasonal and typically opens sometime between mid-May and late June depending on snowpack (it opened May 15, 2026, its earliest date in 16 years), so check current conditions before you plan a Tuolumne Meadows day from Groveland outside that window.
Staying near this entrance saves drive time over basing in the Valley if the high country or Hetch Hetchy is your priority.
Camping as a budget alternative
In-park campgrounds vs. nearby national forest camping. The three Yosemite Valley campgrounds (Upper Pines, Lower Pines, and North Pines) are the most competitive reservations in the park, as further detailed in our Yosemite camping guide. alongside sites at Wawona and Hodgdon Meadow near the Big Oak Flat side.
Reservations run entirely through Recreation.gov, and if you strike out, first-come, first-served national forest camping in the Sierra and Stanislaus National Forests just outside the park boundary is usually your fastest backup, especially on weekdays.
When to book. This is the part that trips people up: Yosemite doesn’t follow the standard 6-month rolling Recreation.gov window most parks use. Valley campgrounds release sites 5 months out, all at once, on the 15th of each month at 7 a.m. Pacific. Want a July 20 arrival? Mark February 15 on your calendar.
Sites for the busiest months routinely sell out within minutes. Camp 4, long Yosemite’s classic first-come, first-served walk-up campground, now requires a Recreation.gov reservation booked one week ahead during the main season (mid-April through early November, per the current park schedule) rather than the old show-up-and-wait system many older guides still describe. Check the NPS Yosemite lodging and camping page directly before you plan around it, since these rules shift from year to year.
One 2026 logistics note that makes trip planning simpler: Yosemite isn’t running a peak-hours vehicle entry reservation system this year, so once you’ve locked in lodging or a campsite, you don’t need a separate day-use permit to drive in; you’ll just want to be through the gate early, since Valley parking still fills by mid-morning in summer. Timing your visit around crowds and conditions in general is worth a look at our guide to the best time of year to hike each major California national park before you lock in dates.
My recommendation
If you’re flexible on dates, camping is the single best lever for cutting the cost of a Yosemite trip. If you’re locked into specific dates around a Half Dome permit, book Valley-floor lodging the day your dates are set and treat camping as the backup, not the plan.
Wherever you land (Valley floor, El Portal, Groveland, or a tent at Hodgdon Meadow), the trailhead doesn’t care how you got there, only how early you’re standing at it. Book the area that matches your plan for the week, not just the prettiest photos, and you’ll spend a lot less energy commuting and a lot more on the trail.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT WHERE TO STAY NEAR YOSEMITE: BEST HOTELS AND CABINS FOR HIKERS
Is it better to stay inside or outside Yosemite National Park?
Stay inside if your priority is a pre-dawn trailhead start on Half Dome or the Mist Trail: you can’t beat a walkable commute. Stay outside (El Portal or Groveland) if budget matters more than convenience; you’ll pay less but add 20 to 45 minutes each way.
How far ahead should you book Yosemite lodging?
Book Valley-floor hotels and July–August campsites 6 to 12 months out. El Portal and Groveland lodging has more flexibility but still fills fast on summer weekends, so aim for at least 2 to 3 months ahead.
Is Yosemite Valley lodging expensive?
Yes, relative to the gateway towns. The Ahwahnee runs from roughly $350 a night in the off-season to $700-plus at summer peak; Yosemite Valley Lodge is more moderate, and Curry Village’s tent cabins are the cheapest way to sleep on the Valley floor itself.
What entrance is best for a lodging base near Tuolumne Meadows?
The Big Oak Flat Entrance near Groveland, since Tioga Road connects directly to Tuolumne Meadows once it opens for the season (typically mid-May to late June, weather-dependent). It’s closed the rest of the year, so check current road status before you build a trip around it.
Are there budget hotel options near Yosemite?
Yes: El Portal’s Yosemite View Lodge and Cedar Lodge, and Groveland’s motel-style options, all run below in-Valley rates. Camping is cheaper still if you’re willing to reserve early or gamble on national forest first-come sites.
Does Yosemite lodging fill up faster in summer?
Considerably. May through September is peak demand across every option in this guide, and Valley-floor rooms and campsites for July and August weekends are typically gone within minutes of release.
