Campgrounds and RV parks near Mariposa, CA

Mariposa sits in the Sierra Nevada foothills along Highway 140, the year-round western corridor into Yosemite National Park. The town serves as a staging point for RV trips into the park and to the surrounding Stanislaus and Sierra National Forest lands. Most travelers split lodging between in-park campgrounds and private RV parks along the Merced River canyon to the east. Closest to the Arch Rock entrance, Indian Flat RV Park sits along Highway 140 in El Portal with RV sites, tent sites, and cabins near the Merced River. Inside the park, Crane Flat and Hodgdon Meadow operate near the Big Oak Flat entrance and accept RVs within posted length limits, though neither offers hookups. North of the park near Groveland, Yosemite Lakes RV Resort provides full-hookup sites along the South Fork Tuolumne River. For lower-elevation reservoir camping, Lake McSwain Recreation Area sits west of Mariposa on Merced Irrigation District land, offering water and electric hookup sites and direct lake access.

In-park Yosemite campgrounds use different booking windows on Recreation.gov. Hodgdon Meadow, along with Upper Pines, Lower Pines, North Pines, and Wawona, releases reservations up to five months in advance on the 15th of each month at 7:00 a.m. Pacific time, one month at a time. Crane Flat is on a two-week rolling window, with sites released 14 days before arrival at 7:00 a.m. Pacific time. Popular dates sell out within minutes, so accounts should be set up and logged in before the release time. Private campgrounds outside the park, including Indian Flat RV Park and Yosemite Lakes RV Resort, take direct reservations through their own websites, with longer windows and more flexible cancellation. Lake McSwain Recreation Area is managed by the Merced Irrigation District and accepts reservations through the lakemcclure.com booking portal.