Yosemite Backcountry Glamping

Love to hike, but hate to lug a bulging backpack? Then Vogelsang High Sierra Camp is your ticket to high-country heaven. Carrying only a daypack with minimal supplies, you can hike all day in Yosemite’s alpine wonderland, then dream the night away in a comfy cot. Even better, you can leave the freeze-dried beef stroganoff at home. The camp chef prepares hearty meals (think spring-mix salad and homemade brownies) with fresh food hauled in by sure-footed mules.

From Tuolumne Meadows, you’ll hike 7 miles on the Rafferty Creek Trail, gaining 1,200 feet as you climb through lodgepole pine forest to Tuolumne Pass. Here, the vistas open wide—you enter the high-alpine world of stark granite, sparkling lakes, and wildflower-filled rock gardens. Your first day’s hike will end at one of Vogelsang’s 12 canvas tents, but tomorrow this exquisite terrain above 10,000 feet will be your playground. Don’t miss the hike to Hanging Basket Lake, its emerald shores framed by Fletcher Peak’s dramatic talus slopes, or the thigh-pumping ascent up 11,516-foot Vogelsang Peak.

Vogelsang Camp is one of five High Sierra Camps, which are spaced 5.7 to 10 miles apart. To hike the entire 50-mile circuit and score a bed at all five camps, you’ll need to plan way in advance. But even procrastinators can usually get a single-camp reservation. No dogs. Check the web starting in mid-June. No dogs.