Staying in Yosemite National Park can be cheap if you are willing to sacrifice some conveniences and are willing to travel in less-popular seasons. If you already own backpacking equipment or can borrow it, pitching a tent along a backpacker's route is the least expensive lodging available in the park. Other budget options are camping in the summer or staying in an unheated tent cabin in the winter.
For backpacking trips in the summer, when most popular trails of free of snow, the park service limits the number of backpackers allowed to head out from each trailhead each day. Reserving a space for your group requires a small fee, but other than the entrance fee to the park, that fee is the cost of your lodging.
Backpacking also requires that you be responsible for providing and carrying your own food, purifying your own water and finding your own "restrooms."
Popular trailheads are often reserved well ahead of time, so flexibility on dates and routes will help you make the most of this option. In 2009, reserving a wilderness permit cost $5, plus $5 per person in the group. That means a permit for one person would cost $10 and a permit for two people would cost $15.
The largest and most popular campgrounds in Yosemite cost $20 per night per campsite. For that price, you will find a the basics: a fire pit, a tent pad, a picnic table and a metal box for securing food from bears. A short hike away, there will be a water spigot and a utilitarian bathroom with flush toilets.
If you don't mind being far from amenities such as camp stores, potable water and flush toilets, sites at campgrounds such as Porcupine Flat can be had in Yosemite for $10 per night.
The trick is that snagging any camping site in the park either means making reservations four to five months in advance or arriving in the park very, very early in the morning and waiting in line to secure a first-come, first-serve spot.
The National Park Service advises that in the summer, all campsites in the park can be claimed by noon.
Tent cabins in Yosemite Valley are available at Curry Village. The cabins have walls of canvas hung over a simple wood frame. They come equipped with cots, sheets, a few blankets, towels and an single overhead light. Communal bathrooms have showers and hot water. Restaurants are within walking distance.
In summer, prices for a tent cabin can top $100 per night after taxes, but the extra amenities the cabins offer may make that price well worth it to some park visitors.
During the winter, fewer areas of Yosemite National Park are accessible, and many trails are closed, but rates for the unheated tent cabins in Curry Village drop to about $39 per night for two people, with discounts on some weeknights if the overnight temperature drops below 39 degrees F.
