Forest camping near Merced with campfires

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95% (2492 reviews)
95% (2492 reviews)

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Under $50

Star Hosts in Merced

12 top forest campgrounds near Merced with campfires

96%
(890)

Diamond Gulch

44 sites · Lodging, RVs, Tents824 acres · Groveland, CA
CLOSE TO YOSEMITE! Explore the mines and hang out on our Groveland, California ranch! We are 35 minutes to the main gate of Yosemite National Park. A great place to stay just outside of the park. We have 824 acres on a beautiful cattle ranch with two small ponds. On our property, you'll find frogs, turtles, oak trees, pine trees and stunning views of Yosemite. We have several campsites to choose from including RV camping, tent camping, and a glamping tent. Pets are welcome. Campfires are permitted as long as there is no fire ban. Potable water and toilet are available onsite. There's a golf course less than a mile away. We are also very close to town. In just a few minutes, you can drive to our local grocery store and pizza parlour. We are a 10-minute drive to Pine Mountain Lake. Beautiful Pine Mountain Lake offers golfing, dining, horseback riding, water sports and an airport. When you come to the ranch it feels like you are hundreds of miles away from civilization, but still close to everything you need. It is incredibly peaceful! This is a great place for someone who wants to escape city life and enjoy the tranquillity of nature. Much of the ranch is open wilderness for you to explore, and it's not uncommon to see deer, frogs, turtles, quail, turkeys, or other countless species of birds. Diamond Gulch Camp is the perfect place to relax if you’re a photographer, artist, family or a group of friends looking for a place to camp near Yosemite. A small portion of the property was used as a gold mine years ago, and you may find remnants of old home sites if you go exploring. We're not far from Wards Ferry Road, Groveland, Lake Don Pedro and other interesting places.
Pets
Potable water
Toilets
Showers
Trash
from 
$38
 / night
97%
(577)

Wondernut Farm

4 sites · Lodging37 acres · Big Oak Flat, CA
Wondernut Farm is an upstart, entirely off grid, working farm-stead being built from the ground up. We breed milking goats and sheep, heritage pigs, and are in the process of converting to a grade A dairy and creamery! We use organic practices, management intensive rotational grazing, and dryland pasture management. We sell our animals locally so that others can have their own milking and meat animals. Our 110 year old hay barn and the roof of the former lumber mill were all we had to work with in getting off the ground. Being first and foremost a functional farm, we can't help but offer a somewhat warts-and-all look into everything it takes to be working to our goals. Our hearts are, and always will be, educational and local community focused, and we work closely with farmers and friends alike in better understanding our innovative animal husbandry, power, pasture and water systems. Whenever we have time, we'll afford the same time and opportunities to interested hip-campers. Our location is stunning and historic, and the beauty of the wild, natural landscape is powerful, yet offers easy access to both Yosemite Valley and the San Francisco Bay area. The area features excellent road and mountain biking in the immediate vicinity, vast access to hiking and backpacking trails, a huge variety of rock climbing in the area, the best whitewater rafting in California on the Tuolumne River, with some tasty places to eat or drink coffee in the nearby town of Groveland, just 10 minutes away. Accommodations at the farm are certainly rustic, and private but not secluded, with occasionally heavily project-exploded shared kitchen and living space, showers, and airy flush toilets. Do be advised that animals are pooping, hammers are hammering, sometimes we need to look into a health or animal injury related issue. Sometimes there is blood in an animal birth or slaughter, and our working guardian dogs have been known to be noisy some nights. Water and electricity are both very limited (though we reuse all our water), waste must be carefully sorted into a number of different categories, and there is always evidence of ump-teen projects unfolding at once. The most difficult condition during much of the summer are nuisance flies, which are always gone at night. We have almost no mosquitoes or ticks. Depending on the exact situation and time of year, guests may have the opportunities to snuggle with baby animals and run our herd to or from pasture, and maybe even get their hands dirty picking veggies in the garden.
Potable water
Toilets
Showers
Trash
Cooking equipment
from 
$102
 / night
98%
(70)

Camp SourBerry (near Yosemite)

2 sites · RVs40 acres · Oakhurst, CA
Welcome to Camp SourBerry! Here, you can park your home-on-wheels in a private space with a view. You can enjoy the feeling of rural seclusion while within walking distance (~1 mile) from shops and restaurants in Oakhurst. The South Gate to Yosemite National Park is less than a 30-minute drive (~75 minutes drive-time to the Valley floor), and Bass Lake's shores are only 15 minutes away. Local wildlife is abundant. Wild turkeys are a common sighting, especially in the spring and fall, as are squirrels, bears, deer, coyotes, and bobcats, plus all kinds of native birds (hawks, quail, jays, woodpeckers, ravens, vultures, and eagles). We have a small homestead-style farm and so do the neighbors, so you can hear the distant sounds of chickens, turkeys, sheep, goats, and cows. Because the safety of our animals (and yours) is paramount, we do not allow pets off-leash. The parking location is an ease pull-through for passenger vehicles and shorter trailers. People with longer, taller trailers find it easier to pull-in and back out. The best view is on the passenger side of the drive! Whether you want to stay put and enjoy the natural setting or have a base from which to explore world-class attractions, we would love to host your next vacation.
Pets
Trash
from 
$34.56
 / night

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Happy farmer sitting in a truck in a grassy field
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