Driving San Fran to Yosemite (Fish Camp @ South End) - places to stop?
Oct 18th, 2009, 04:11 PM
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 40
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Driving San Fran to Yosemite (Fish Camp @ South End) - places to stop?
We're leaving Thursday for a trip to CA. We're driving from SF to the southern end of Yosemite. Any recommendations for restaurants or sights/to-do's on the drive?
TIA!
TIA!
Oct 18th, 2009, 11:01 PM
#2
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 1,822
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
You may not be getting responses because a lot of folks don’t know the name of the small town above Oakhurst and Bass Lake.
If you cut across and take the 49 down, you can visit all the little gold rush towns including Angels Camp, Columbia, Sonora, Jamestown, Chinese Camp, and Coulterville.
It’s been years but if I recall, Angels Camp has a cavern you can visit. Columbia is a restored ‘western town’ with original jail and a stagecoach ride that used to include a fake ‘hold-up’. Jamestown has a museum with trains that are used in movies and television.
The drive from Mariposa into Yosemite alongside the Merced River is a more spectacular view into Yosemite. It will add some time to your drive but full of natural beauty along the way. You can exit at the south end into Fish Camp. It sounds like you may be visiting the park valley on other days too.
I don’t know of other sites or restaurants along 49, but once you’re there you can eat at the Tenaya Lodge Restaurant (you may even be staying there) http://www.tenayalodge.com/restaurants.aspx
Whether you’re in a vacation rental home (a lot around there) or Tenaya Lodge it’s a place mostly to get away from ‘everything’.
That said, we have visited the Golden Chain Theatre many years ago and considering you’re in the middle of nowhere, you take what you can get.
http://www.goldenchaintheatre.org/season.html
Bass Lake is nearby and Ducey’s on the Lake is a popular eating spot:
http://www.basslake.com/duceys.html
The movie ‘The Great Outdoors’ with Dan Aykroyd and John Candy was filmed at Bass Lake and it was actually winter time not summer as seen in the movie. The actors got out of the lake and immediately covered up in blankets.
Elderberry House Restaurant in Coarsegold just beneath Oakhurst is nice:
http://www.elderberryhouse.com/
For what it’s worth also in Coarsegold on Saturday:
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4602075/
For a ride on a real steam locomotive try the Sugar Pine Railroad's Logger Steam Train:
http://www.ymsprr.com/
Of course the giant redwoods on your end of the park! I have family in Ahwahnee and may just take a run up there in late November.
If you cut across and take the 49 down, you can visit all the little gold rush towns including Angels Camp, Columbia, Sonora, Jamestown, Chinese Camp, and Coulterville.
It’s been years but if I recall, Angels Camp has a cavern you can visit. Columbia is a restored ‘western town’ with original jail and a stagecoach ride that used to include a fake ‘hold-up’. Jamestown has a museum with trains that are used in movies and television.
The drive from Mariposa into Yosemite alongside the Merced River is a more spectacular view into Yosemite. It will add some time to your drive but full of natural beauty along the way. You can exit at the south end into Fish Camp. It sounds like you may be visiting the park valley on other days too.
I don’t know of other sites or restaurants along 49, but once you’re there you can eat at the Tenaya Lodge Restaurant (you may even be staying there) http://www.tenayalodge.com/restaurants.aspx
Whether you’re in a vacation rental home (a lot around there) or Tenaya Lodge it’s a place mostly to get away from ‘everything’.
That said, we have visited the Golden Chain Theatre many years ago and considering you’re in the middle of nowhere, you take what you can get.
http://www.goldenchaintheatre.org/season.html
Bass Lake is nearby and Ducey’s on the Lake is a popular eating spot:
http://www.basslake.com/duceys.html
The movie ‘The Great Outdoors’ with Dan Aykroyd and John Candy was filmed at Bass Lake and it was actually winter time not summer as seen in the movie. The actors got out of the lake and immediately covered up in blankets.
Elderberry House Restaurant in Coarsegold just beneath Oakhurst is nice:
http://www.elderberryhouse.com/
For what it’s worth also in Coarsegold on Saturday:
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4602075/
For a ride on a real steam locomotive try the Sugar Pine Railroad's Logger Steam Train:
http://www.ymsprr.com/
Of course the giant redwoods on your end of the park! I have family in Ahwahnee and may just take a run up there in late November.
Oct 19th, 2009, 07:50 AM
#3
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 16,854
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Is your interest solely in getting to Fish Camp? I would drive to Yosemite Valley via 140 because, like the previous poster, I do like driving along the Merced River but coming into Yosemite via 120 is fine as well. From there you could stop in Yosemite Valley to see all the usual sites, like Yosemite Falls, Half Dome,. El Capitan....
The you coudl head towards the south to your destination, stoping at Wawona to see the village and the Mariposa Grove to see the trees.
I would not suggest stopping off anywhere on the drive to Yosemite as it's pretty musch agricultural land. Not really any sights that would be better than Yosemite.
The you coudl head towards the south to your destination, stoping at Wawona to see the village and the Mariposa Grove to see the trees.
I would not suggest stopping off anywhere on the drive to Yosemite as it's pretty musch agricultural land. Not really any sights that would be better than Yosemite.
Oct 19th, 2009, 08:34 AM
#4
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 6,624
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
As an east-coaster, I have to say that I made it a point to enter Yosemite the first time on 41, in order to see the valley from tunnel-view! We stayed in El portal, so drove on 140 a number of times...I would still recommend 41.
Most Calif. people complain about driving through Central Valley, but we found it facinating to see where so much of our produce comes from.
~Liz
Most Calif. people complain about driving through Central Valley, but we found it facinating to see where so much of our produce comes from.
~Liz
Oct 19th, 2009, 10:09 AM
#5
Unless you go way out of your way to visit other places, there is no reason to stop anywhere between. Hwy 49/the gold rush villages will be quite a detour and add a lot of time (and take time away from YNP). Driving across the Central Valley can be moderately interesting just seeing the different crops, etc. But there are really no destinations/reasons to stops anywhere. Just enjoy the view from the car and get to Yosemite.
Oct 19th, 2009, 12:25 PM
#6
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 1,822
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The above is all true. You asked for for sites/to-dos on the drive.
That begs the question: is touring along the way a priority (part of your planned vacation) or just something hit and miss if it happens to be along your planned route?
Do you already have an idea of which route you wish to take? How much time do you plan on staying in Fish Camp/Yosemite?
That begs the question: is touring along the way a priority (part of your planned vacation) or just something hit and miss if it happens to be along your planned route?
Do you already have an idea of which route you wish to take? How much time do you plan on staying in Fish Camp/Yosemite?
