Can anyone give me some driving information about our California trip? A few retired teachers from the Gulf coast who haven't driven in the mountains before are thinking of driving from San Francisco to Yosemite. What is the drive like? I see it takes about 4 hours, but are there winding mountainous roads with drop offs? I don't know if we could handle that. We are used to freeways and city traffic, but are wimps about mountainous roads. This trip might happen in mid May. Thanks for your help. Decb

Very easy drive; no winding roads. Rest easy. Go and enjoy!

It is not too early to make reservations for places to stay in Yosemite. It is easy to spend at least 2 or 3 days there. www.nps.gov and then go to Yosemite.

In May, you must have reservations if you want to stay in the park, which I highly recommend. It is very popular. I hope you aren't planning to be there over Memorial Day holiday.

I don't know which Yosemite pollyvw has been to, but I find all the roads into Yosemite to be winding, and several to have significant dropoffs along the way. Hwy 140 is probably the easiest, as it follows the river; it's winding but not much in the way of dropoffs.

All the roads are reasonably wide, and have a fair amount of guardrail.

I'm one of those people who's REALLY uncomfortable on mountain roads. The worst kind are switchbacks on mountains above the tree-line. I don't remember anything like that on the southern route to Yosemite (through Fish Camp).

I can't say that I LIKED it, but the road was mostly swoopy curves through forest, with a fairly gentle grade. I remember being surprised that we got up to 7000 ft., because I don't remember feeling like the car was struggling much.

I DO recommend arriving in the valley by this route, because seeing it for the first time after you emerge from the tunnel (there's parking) is one of those sights you will remember always.

BTW, the road up to Glacier Point was OK, too, although looking at it on a map gave me heeby-geebies...

~Liz

If you enter through the Hwy 140 of 41 entrances, you should be fine.

Hwy 140 follows the Merced River up into the hills and then into Yosemite Valley. It is curvey, but not with any huge drop offs or anything. There are a few sections when you are climbing that may make you nervous, but it isn't bad and those sections don't last long. It is a pretty easy route.

Hwy 41 comes up from the south, which will be a little out of the way, probably add 45 minutes to an hour to the drive, but as elberko says, you get a really neat view of the valley on the way in. This route goes over a pass, but the route is very forested, so you don't feel exposed on the road - trees on both sides make any steep sections feel not so steep.

On the other hand - Hwy 120 is winding with sections of sheer drop offs. I would avoid that route.

I'd recommend Hwy 140. It's 186 miles from SF and will take about 4 hours & 15 minutes to drive (depending on the day of the week and commute traffic)

Hwy 41 would be 246 miles via Hwy 49 (which is curvey but in the foot hills) and would take approx 5 hours 20 minutes from SF. If you were to stay on Hwy 99 down to Fresno then you are looking at 278 miles and almost 6 hours driving.

IMHO Hwy 41 between Wawona and Yosemite Valley is a long curvey road..might not have the drop offs of 120...but curvey and far from Yosemite Valley. Please don't stay in the Wawona area..that's 27 miles and almost an hour drive to Yosemite Valley.

May is going to be the prime waterfall time...you're going to love it!

Make sure you get lodging in Yosemite Valley so you don't have to travel back and forth into the park.

Utahtea

Oh...forgot the big plus about entering on 140 is the wildflowers in the spring!

Utahtea

I live near Merced the gateway to Yosemite. The Merced road is and is currently plagued by slides so be sure you call hwy department. It’s a toll free call 1-800-427-7623.
You can drive from SF down I-5 to Gustine area and pick up 140 there (shortest) or you can drive directly over to 99 then down to Merced and pick it up or you can come my way via Los Banos (the bathroom) by driving south to San Jose-Gilroy area, over Pacheco Pass HWY152, and then on to either Merced or Chowchilla on HWY 99 and head up to the hills.
Mariposa is a lovely old town and you will start to drive along the river just outside of town.

ttt

120 is windy and coming from the west you'd be on the dropoff side of the road. Am thinking of 120 near the park. Coming west, you go downhill with the dropoff on your right (the dropoff side). To the left is the lane going up - the mountain-side lane because the mountain is beside it.

One benefit of coming north on 41 and going north to the valley is that, IIRC, the road is always the mountain-side of the road, not the dropoff side. So you have the southboound lane and that lane's shoulder between you and the dropoff.

JoanneH
After visiting Yosemite we're probably going to spend a night around Monterey/Carmel. Looking on the map, it looks as though we would drive near Merced on route. How will we be affected by the slides? Is there a different route we could take to avoid the slides? Thanks

Here is a good site for road information in California:

http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/roadinfo/

Just type in the hwy number you are interested in.

For 140, which is the most direct out of the valley when heading to Monterey, you've got 1-way traffic controls between Yosemite and the town of Mariposa. For weekend travel, I imagine delays could be very long. For weekday travel, it shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Alternate routes - you've got 2: Hwy 120, which will take you farther north than you need to go and Hwy 41, which will take you farther south. I'd probably go with 41, but it probably doesn't make a heck of a lot of difference.

I ride that area often on my motorcycle and for where you want to be and where you want to go; I would do Hwy 120 into the park and Hwy 140 going out.

From SF going down to Hwy 140 takes to much time and some pretty boring roads. Not that the Hwy 580 out of SF over toward Hwy 120 in the valley is much better, but faster.

The really twisty part of Hwy 120 is past where you would turn off to go to the Big Oak Flat Road and the park gate.

Leaving to Monterey I would then take Hwy 140 to Merced and then take Hwy 152 over toward Monterey.

If you just use Mapquest or something like it and do direct routes they will give you the best directions to where you want to go.

Based on your concerns about mountainous roads I don't think you will find much diff between any of the routes. Most of your drive will be in the lower valley and foothills.

Make reservations if you are staying in the park or any where nearby (30 miles or so). Keep in mind if you are staying outside the park like around Mariposa, Fish Camp, or Oakhurst you might want to come in on Hwy 140 as those places are southwest of the park and easier to reach via Hwy's 140/49/41

Thanks so much for the driving info. I will share this with our group. I appreciate all the tips.Decb