This is camp life in its most elementary aspect. From that the conditions of tent and bungalow life in the Valley range up to the finely equipped and organized camps, where the visitor may enjoy all the advantages and luxuries of comfortable hotel life, while at the same time living close to the ground. The established camps at present are Awahnee, El Capitan, Yosemite Camp, Lost Arrow and Camp Curry. The affairs of each camp are managed from its own central office, a building where mail is received and the interests of the campers are looked after. The daily life of these communities is full of incident. Each camp has its entertainments and its gala performances. One has a fine, large bathing pavilion and plunge; another, a festival hall. Moving pictures are exhibited in the evenings; there are lectures and concerts; and a large, well equipped dancing pavilion makes the hours fly fast for young people. Communication between the camps is easy, for there are auto-buses, “jitneys,” as well as ponies and burros, and things are stirring actively among the camps most of the time. No one need lack for entertainment. Between the single tent in a remote part of the Valley and the populous camp community there is a wide range for choice, and variety of conditions enough to make everyone happy. PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 4, No. 16, SERIAL No. 116 COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC. [Illustration: FROM A WATER COLOR PAINTING VIEW FROM GLACIER POINT TRAIL, YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK] _THE YOSEMITE VALLEY_ _The Big Trees_ SIX A most interesting feature of the Yosemite region is the Big Trees. There are three groves of giant trees near the valley--the Tuolumne, Merced, and Mariposa. The first two named are small groves. The important grove is the Mariposa. This grove is so called from its situation in Mariposa (Butterfly) County. It occupies a tract of land about four square miles in area, and consists of two definite groups of trees. Its elevation above the sea level varies from 5,000 to 8,000 feet. The Big Tree, or _Sequoia gigantea_, is found only on the west slope of the Sierra Range. The Redwood, or _Sequoia sempervirens_, its twin brother, is strictly a seaboard tree, being confined to the coast ranges. The Big Tree, however, is the giant of all, and it is of this species that the Mariposa Grove is made up.