The free climbing Areas in Yosemite Valley include the Cathedrals, Glacier Point Apron and Cookie Cliff. Popular and accessible Grade V big walls are found on Leaning Tower, Washington Column and Yosemite Falls Wall, while the Grade VI's on Half Dome and Mount Watkins present more difficult and remote challenges. Tuolumne Meadows actually offers more climbable rock than 'The Valley', with numerous domes located along the road to the east entrance of the park. Several routes listed in '50 Classic Climbs' are found in Tuolumne Meadows on Fairview Dome, AFFD, and Stately Pleasures Dome. But the frontispiece of Yosemite remains El Capitan, epicenter of the Aid Climbing and Big Wall Universe.

Camping:

While Camp 4, the "climbers' campsite", is famous enough to be put on the National Register of Historic Places, it is also the noisiest and least developed place to stay in 'The Valley'. Campsite fees are now up to $5 per person per night, far too much to pay for cold water, scratched stainless steel "mirrors", and no electricity. Camp 4 is normally full during the spring and fall climbing seasons, meaning a long wait in the queue for those who want to [legally] camp. While the more affluent may choose to stay in The Pines campgrounds, more enterprising individuals find ways to live in 'The Valley' for free for months at a time.

There are several other campsites outside of Yosemite Valley including White Wolf, Yosemite Creek and Porcupine Creek located halfway between Tuolumne Meadows and the 'The Valley'. These are great places to stay if you plan to climb at both Areas of the park.

The Valley Scene:

"If El Cap epitomizes Yosemite's climbing, then Camp 4 embodies its soul. It is here among the boulders and bear boxes that climbers gather to live, lie and lust over ascents real and imagined. Throw your haulbag down into the dust and come join the international cast of reprobates and delinquents who battle bears by night and rangers by day. There are even a few normal people here, too. Find your next wall partner on the kiosk bulletin board, hang out in the parking lot to buy copperheads or swap tales, or go to the lodge caf where you can drink coffee every morning with some of the world's great climbers. Take a hike through the woods and drink in the pervasive aroma of bay leaves, or hang out in El Cap Meadows with your binoculars and watch other people suffer.

By mid-afternoon the scene swings over to the deli where you'll find the crew buried beneath a heap of Olde English beer cans before we adjourn to the Pizza Deck in Curry Village for supper. After popping into the Mountain Shop to gaze longingly at the stacks of gear you wish you could afford, you'll end up drinking a few more beers at the parking lot bear boxes in "Camp 5", or you'll ride the shuttle bus back to the Mountain Room Bar to complete your circuit. That night as you lie in your bivi sack and gaze skyward at the constellations blinking between the ponderosas, you'll realize that there's nowhere on earth you'd rather be than here in Yosemite."