Yosemite High Sierra Camps
May Lake High Sierra Camp
← All camps

May Lake

Open

Perched on the shore of May Lake beneath the granite summit of Mount Hoffmann, this camp offers the shortest hike of any High Sierra Camp and sits at the geographic heart of the system.

Reopened 2024 — operating in 2026

May Lake photo: Elysia Heller

Opened in July 1938, May Lake replaced an earlier camp at Tenaya Lake. That summer the Curry Company’s carpenters and plumbers built a stone dining room and kitchen and set tents among a grove of hemlocks on the lake’s east shore, at a site selected by Donald Tresidder and Mary Curry Tresidder of the Yosemite Park and Curry Company. Mount Hoffmann, towering above the camp, marks the geographic center of Yosemite National Park.

With just a 1.2-mile hike from the trailhead, May Lake is the most accessible of the five camps — the easy on-ramp to the high country, and it is operating on the guided loop in 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1938

    Camp Opens

    In July 1938 the Curry Company's carpenters and plumbers erect a stone dining room and kitchen and a cluster of tents in a grove of hemlocks on the east shore of May Lake, replacing the earlier camp at Tenaya Lake. The site — beneath Mount Hoffmann, the geographic center of Yosemite — is chosen by Donald Tresidder and Mary Curry Tresidder of the Yosemite Park and Curry Company.

  2. 2019–2023

    Years of Closure

    Heavy snow, the COVID-19 pandemic, deferred maintenance, and staffing shortages drive recurring system-wide closures affecting May Lake.

  3. 2024

    Camp Reopens

    May Lake is one of three camps to reopen after years of closures, alongside Glen Aulin and Sunrise.

  4. 2025

    Full-System Closure

    All five High Sierra Camps are closed for the season, citing potable-water and restroom/utility failures across the system.

  5. Today

    Operating in 2026

    With just a 1.2-mile hike from the trailhead, May Lake is the most accessible of the camps — and it is running on the official guided loop in 2026.