Jeannie

Some of you know I posted last week about a family trip to Santa Cruz. Thanks for your advice.
Brother wants to take a side trip to Yosemite. How long a drive is it, and is it a hard drive, i.e. narrow roads, mountain curves, etc? He plans to spend one night around Yosemite on a Thursday night, late July. Should I encourage him to make reservations?

kam

Boy, am I going to be the "doom and gloom" person when you hear this. First of all Santa Cruz to Yosemite is not a convenient route. There are two ways to go and both have disadvantages. One is to head south to Watsonville to 152 and take that to 99 south to Fresno and then back up 41 to Yosemite. The other way is to go over 17 to San Jose, up 680 to 580 to 120. Either way, I think it will probably take 5-6 hours without traffic and/or accidents. The drive is quite boring until you get within about an hour of Yosemite and then it becomes mountainous, windy but still good roads. There's a lot posted here about various routes into the park and which gate is which. Then the other half of the downer is that I would guess that there is very little left in a worthwhile distance of Yosemite for the end of July. I think you said you were going to be in Monterey on this trip as well. It might be better to go from there and just skip Santa Cruz altogether. Look for lodging at towns like Fish Camp, El Portal, Oakhurst, or Mariposa (but this is a hike)Yosemite is fantastic, but you'll be a peak tourist time and Brother should have planned ahead better. Good luck.

Jeannie

To Kam: Thanks for your honesty. It is good to hear from someone who knows the area. (I had already decided not to go to Yosemite -just there a few years ago.) While I thoroughly enjoyed it, don't want to make that long side trip this time. (When we went before, we came from Las Vegas, and that was a drive!!)
For this short trip, I would rather tool around Monterey or San Francisco. I will pass on your advice to Brother.

BillJ

Not to quibble, but probably the best way to Yosemite from Santa Cruz is from Watsonville, 152 thru Gilroy and over Pacheco Pass to Los Banos. East of Los Banos, take a left on Hwy 59 to Merced, then pick up 140 to Yosemite through Mariposa, and the awesome Merced River Canyon. Lodging is available in Mariposa, and El Portel, just outside the park entrance. This route would cut maybe 100 miles off the Fresno route, and present a more scenic route into the park. The Merced River Canyon is an awesome gorge, though the river will be down somewhat this year. The roads are good, 140 and 59 are mostly two lane, but so is 41 from Fresno.
I'm afraid the driving time is around 5 hours. Santa Cruz to Merced is about 2.5 hours, Merced to Yosemite Valley floor (Hwy 140) is about 2 - 2.5 hours.
Reservations in the park are many times available due to cancellations. Keep phoning the Yosemite #. You might get lucky. (I grew up in Merced, and have been to Yosemite countless times from both Merced and Fresno. We much prefer the Merced route)