Camp 4, Yosemite Valley - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

Camp 4 has been the historical gathering and socializing hub of the climbing world for nearly half a century.  The Park Service initially named the campground Sunnyside, but climbers preferred to name it after one of the more spacious bivouac sites on the nearby El Capitan.   The campground has changed over the years, and both buildings and campsites have been renovated, but the spirit of the climbing community still exerts a strong presence  today, just as it did during the "Golden Age" of Yosemite climbing nearly 50 years ago.

Quoted from the supplemental application submitted by the American Alpine Club (author Dick Duane):

There are historic places throughout the United States that few visit, despite either the plaques that mark their location or governmental efforts to educate the public regarding their importance. Camp 4 is not one of them. No plaque marks its location. No tourist bureau or public agency touts it. Yet, the people come. They come year after year, decade after decade. One generation replaces another in the pilgrimage. They come from states as far away as Alaska and New York; from countries as far away as China and the Czech Republic. They repeat the historical rituals of the past: climbing on the ancient boulders, gathering around campfires with new climbing partners, preparing to climb the old routes, and dreaming about creating the future. This is not history as a dust bin. It is history as a force that shapes a living, vibrant present.

Camp 4 is such a simple setting: forested space, boulders, campsites, sun in the morning, views across the Valley, closeness to the easy Swan's Slab, and closeness to the ever challenging El Capitan. The simplicity itself is part of Camp 4's evocative force. Climbers, by their very nature, seek a direct, intense interaction with nature. For them, the spareness of the campground is far more evocative than any of the more luxurious lodgings available in the Valley.

While simplicity matters, it alone would not produce the deep feelings that Camp 4 evokes. In the opinion of this supplementary application's author, it was Steve Roper, in his book Camp 4, who best captured how and why Camp 4 reverberates with historic feelings and associations. He, therefore, should have the last word. In talking about the young Americans who first came to Camp 4 after World War II, and who turned it into the center of world rock climbing, Roper said:

These . . . rebellious eccentrics . . . were the most gifted rock climbers in the world, and I hope I evoked their spirit and their times.