Bethany’s Yosemite Guide: Places to Stay/Employee Housing

This edition of my guide to Yosemite is the places where people sleep—guests and employees, specifically Aramark employees because I didn’t take pictures of the Ranger’s houses. They’re near Yosemite Village.

Red=guests, Blue=employees

A: The Ahwahnee (Majestic)

The Ahwahnee Hotel was originally built to bring high-spending visitors into the park. The hotel is huge and fancy by typical park standards. The Grand Lounge is two stories tall with a gigantic fireplace that I watch tourists take pictures of all the time. It has a few cabins on the grounds that are used as well, and the biggest of those is where the First Family stayed during their visit. These rooms are pretty pricey (just like everything at the hotel), and I would recommend staying elsewhere since you’re on vacation in a national park…so why stay in a hotel?

 

 

B: Curry Village (Half Dome Village)

Curry Village Housekeeping has tent cabins, bath cabins, and WOBs. WOBs are hard-sided and stand for without bath. Don’t quote me, but I’m pretty sure there are almost a thousand units on the property, including somewhere around 600ish tent cabins. (Tent cabins are what employees stay in as well but in different areas.) Unheated tent cabins come with a double, two twins, or a double and three twins—so anywhere from 1-5 people. Heated tent cabins are a double, two twins, or a double and two twins—so anywhere from 1-4 people. The tent cabin is the cheapest option in Curry, but you’re still paying to sleep in the valley, so expect it to be around $100 still. Bath cabins are just what they sound like—little cabins with bathrooms. There are a bunch that look like the ones in my picture, found in groups of four, each with two double beds. There’s also a building we call Stoneman, and some of the rooms in that building have three double beds because they have a loft area. The bath cabins are fancier than the tent cabins, so naturally, they cost more. (They also take a lot longer to clean.)

C: Housekeeping Camp

Housekeeping Camp costs the same as a tent cabin in Curry, but the structures in Housekeeping Camp don’t have walls. A lot of big groups stay here because you can have fires, as opposed to Curry where you can’t. It never ceases to amaze me how many decorations people bring to decorate their structure in Housekeeping Camp! I’ve gotten to see a lot of cool ones. So pro—campfire, con—no walls.

D: Yosemite Lodge

I don’t know a ton about the Lodge rooms other than that there are a bunch of buildings with a bunch of rooms, and each building is named after a different tree. If you imagine a two-story hotel, you chop it into pieces, and spread it around a central cafeteria, pool, gift shop, and restaurants…than that kind of describes the Lodge. Sorry for my pitiful description.

E: Campgrounds

There are four campgrounds in the valley—Upper Pines, Lower Pines, North Pines, and the Backpacker’s Campground. I didn’t go take a picture of the campground…because it’s a campground. The campgrounds are run by NPS, not by Aramark.

F: Ahwahnee Dorm

The Ahwahnee Dorm (and three tents) is where I live! Tent #1, special right? ;) A lot of the people here work at the Ahwahnee, but not all of us. Most of the rooms inside are double rooms and we have quite a few couples who live here. There’s a communal kitchen, lounge, laundry room, and bathrooms. The Ahwahnee Dorm has the nicest single stall male restroom in the park. (Probably also the only one…) Because there are so many more females than males that live here, the guys share a one-stall/one-sink room and a one-shower/tub room, and the females have a three-stall, three-shower, six-sink room. ;) I think it’s funny.

 My tent is the one on the right with Cassidy's bike resting next to it.

G: Huff/New Housing

Huff, which stands for Housing Under Firefall—named after the fires that used to be thrown off Glacier Point, is the biggest employee housing area in the valley. It contains a combination of tent cabins and WOBs, three communal kitchens/laundry, and three showerhouses. When my coworkers learned that I wasn’t in Huff, they wondered if I requested quiet housing. Nope…just worked out that way. Huff has the reputation of being extremely loud and a bit of a party area. People get in trouble all the time for stupid things there. It’s dead north of the Curry Village bath cabins, and west of the raft rentals and former ice rink. New Housing is west of Huff (on the other side of the Wellness Center), and those buildings are more suite-style with six-ish people sharing a bathroom/kitchen/etc.

 Huff

New Housing

H: Highland Court

Highland Court, aka Train Wreck, is right next to Yosemite Lodge. I don’t remember the entire story of how it got its name, but I’m pretty sure it deals with the boxcar-like buildings they plopped there all helter-skelter like because they needed housing and then left there. Some people also say it’s because of who lives there…typically older people who have been in the park a while that are…well…interesting.

I: Lost Arrow

Lost Arrow is a bunch of WOBs that they built on a parking lot behind Degnan’s. I know quite a few people that live here because they’ve been here long enough to move out of Huff, but not long enough to move into Tecoya or something.

J: Tecoya

Tecoya is almost all people with seniority—there are five(?) big dorms and a bunch of manager houses. I believe the dorm rooms are singles, but again—not entirely sure. Dorms A and B share a common space, as do C and D. Tecoya is across from the Village Store and I pass it every time I take the bike path from Yosemite Village to the Ahwahnee.

 Half of one of the Tecoya dorms

There aren’t any more options in the valley; however, if you get a wilderness permit, you can camp out in the backcountry. You have to be four miles from the nearest town-area (Yosemite Valley, Tuolumne Meadows, etc.), and one air-mile from the nearest road. Many of the actual camps are on a first-come, first-serve basis and charge you $5-6 for staying there. If you make your camp off a trail, you just need to be 100 feet from the trail and 100 feet from any water sources on a durable surface. A durable surface is rock, duff, and sand/gravel. Don’t set up camp on plants! The Ranger at the Wilderness Center would go over all of that with you before you’re issued your permit, but now you know ahead of time too. :) #LeaveNoTrace

Well, that wraps it up for where to sleep in the valley and also this edition of Bethany’s Yosemite Guide. I’ll post another one when I have time. Have a great day folks and be safe out there/in there/wherever you are! :D