Mather Family Camp

Camp Mather is a roughly 337-acre family summer camp in Mather, CA, just outside the gates of Yosemite National Park in Tuolumne County. It is owned and run by the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, opened in 1924, and was named for Stephen T. Mather, the first director of the National Park Service. The camp runs week-long sessions each summer and draws close to 10,000 campers a season, with activities such as swimming in Birch Lake, archery, arts and crafts, and horseback riding, plus a laundromat, swimming pool, and picnic areas on site. Reservations for San Francisco residents are allocated through an annual lottery, with any remaining weeks opened up to the general public.