Crane Flat Campground Reopens: Yosemite's $9.8 Million Modernization

Yosemite National Park's Crane Flat Campground has reopened to visitors for the first time in four years, after a $9.8 million modernization funded by the Great American Outdoors Act. It was the first real upgrade the campground had seen since 1962.

A rebuilt two-level campsite. NPS photo.

Worn out and far from flat

The campground hosts more than 100,000 visitors a year, and it had become rundown. Picnic tables and fire rings were rusty and signs had faded. Sites were poorly defined, so campers parked wherever they found room and trampled sensitive plants. The biggest complaint was the lack of level ground for tents or for cooking and eating: campers wedged logs under table legs and dug out their own tent pads. The campground closed in 2020, shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Matt Outhier, who managed the project when he worked in Yosemite facilities management division's design and engineering branch. NPS photo.

The engineer's dream project

For Matt Outhier, an NPS civil engineer who spent five years in Yosemite's Design & Engineering Branch — an Eagle Scout and avid camper — redesigning the campground was a dream job. His team spent hours reading online reviews to understand how campers felt about the place. They learned it was often a last resort, a backup for when the more popular campsites in the Valley were full, and that "Flat" was a misnomer.

Outhier set out to make it a destination. He spent many nights there, especially during construction, to get a feel for it, and photographed bears and deer passing through each day among the conifers, pines and oaks. One morning, crews rounding a corner in one of the back loops found a doe that had just given birth to a fawn in the middle of a campground road.

What changed

• Level, defined sites. Crews graded more than 160 campsites. Each now has a tent pad, fire ring and picnic table next to one another, forming a comfortable outdoor living space, with new bear-proof food lockers.
• Accessibility. Eight fully accessible campsites were built, with accessible paths to the restrooms, bear boxes set higher off the ground, and double-walled fire rings.
• Groups. Several double sites were added for groups of up to 12.
• Terraced sites. Retaining walls and steps were added to several sites in the 400 and 500 loops. Once undesirable because of their steep grades, Outhier says, they are now among the best spots in the campground.
• Drainage and protection. Culverts — underground pipes — improve drainage; logs and boulders keep vehicles off the vegetation, and vegetation and ground cover were restored.

A campsite with its picnic table, tents and food locker. NPS photo.

Outhier hopes Crane Flat becomes a place people want to stay, and that returning campers notice the difference. "This is another example of how the Great American Outdoors Act is transforming parks across the country," he said.

Sources

• National Park Service, Yosemite National Park: "Crane Flat Campground Modernization." Pictures an earlier version of this page left out were restored on 2026-09-26.