It was a Thursday and the previous Monday we had bailed on an ambitious backpacking trip through Mineral King. Days before the busiest weekend of the year we had nothing on the books. No plans, no time, no reservations, we illogically set our marks on the most popular park in California, Yosemite. Why not, it had been a couple years and we couldn’t stop talking about it all spring.

We were gambling on one of the 125 first-come sites in the massive Tuolumne Meadows campground. In need of a back-up plan I came across some handy dispersed camping on 395 and along 120, east and west. Then the diamond in the rough, a map of a handful of campgrounds on Tioga Pass Road leading to the park entrance and a few leading up to Saddlebag Lake. The Google Image results were mind blowing compared to the dense woods of Tuolumne Meadows campground. We were sold.

These were small campgrounds, a dozen sites apiece but with back-ups in hand we pressed on with optimism. It was at least a year since we’d drove 395 and it’s insanely gorgeous. The Tetons’ conical horns may be among the most beautiful mountains in the lower 48, but the Sierras are most impressive; just huge, yes in height but also in breadth of geography, in density of peaks. Seeing only minuscule segments at a time is still an overwhelming affair.

We passed Mammoth, one of the magnets of my universe and the scenery continued to impress; through stands of pines, past June and Mono Lake and up Tioga Pass Road where Mount Dana, Conness and North Peak overtake the landscape and one’s senses.

We turned onto the dirt road that climbed to Saddlebag Lake. We headed straight for Saddlebag, the highest campground at 10,079 figuring we’d backtrack if need be. Saddlebag was full. The next one down was Saw-Mill, a walk in campground that piqued our interest. We parked and set off down the trail toward the campground. The trail opened to a gorgeous field with views of the alpine meadow below, the Lee Vining Creek wandering through, Mt. Dana to the left, North Peak to the right. The sites were full and I continued down the trail. It wound toward another small meadow with four more sites, all full. The trail continued another quarter mile and I tried remembering how many sites there were at this campground and how many I’d already past. Were there more down this trail or was I on a hike?

Two more sites came into view, 11 & 12. 12 was taken, 11 had a hat pinned to the pylon but was empty. There was no one around me, even Alli was a ways down the trail but I nervously sprinted up and tacked my reservation to the pylon. We had a spot.

It was about a half mile from the car to the site and it took a couple trips to haul our car camping setup out to the site but it was all worth it. Walk-in sites are the best. Quieter, no sorry saps doing laps at 10:00pm looking for a site, and in a campground so small and spread out, you feel like you’re in the backcountry except with luxuries like cold beer, bocce balls and pillows.