I'm scoping out a quick northern CA trip for the week before Thanksgiving. Will be flying in from the East Coast Saturday 11/24, ending up on the peninsula south of SF by Wednesday 11/27. I can choose any airport - prefer one served by UAL.

My preference is to spend as many hours outside as possible, walking, hiking &/or biking I'd love to spend a few days in Yosemite but having difficulty getting flights into Fresno so I'm open to other out of the box ideas.

Anybody have suggestions?

Fly into Sacramento or Oakland. The 24th is a Sunday, not a Sat. But either day is better than Friday. Drive up to Healdsburg. Lots of pretty walks, bike rides around the Russian River or Dry creek valley's.....rent a place to stay on VRBO and enjoy yourselves.

You could try the Lake Tahoe area, flying into Reno.

The Carmel Valley is a beautiful place, and you can eat outdoors. Rural, yet urbane. Rent a bike and cycle the 11+ miles from Carmel.

UAL serves the Monterey airport.

Walking Carmel, down to Big Sur, etc.... Beautiful areas.

Sacramento would not be my choice if I was going to wine country. I like the suggestion of the Monterey Peninsula, Big Sur, lots of walking there. Tahoe is great too lots of outdoors things in that area....

Flying into Monterey is fairly expensive. If you are interested in going to the Monterey Peninsula you might think about San Jose airport. It's about an hour and a half drive from there to Carmel (well for locals anyway).

Well, I was able to snag FF tix into Fresno & book a few nights at Curry Village, so Yosemite it is. Thanks for the suggestions - I'll add them to my list for next time.

Arriving late Saturday 11/23 into Fresno then will drive Sun morning to Yosemite.

I don't mind cold & would prefer snow free roads & trails but will adapt if weather is worse. I'm comfortable with winter hiking so no worries.

Half Dome is out of the question in late November so I'll scope out Yosemite Falls and/or Glacier Point hikes from the valley, or just enjoy the lower elevations. Can't wait!

If there is snow you may need a plan B to get to Yosemite Valley - Rental cars don't allow tire chains.

You also may need to pick up some chains Walmart or a car parts store or somewhere because even though you can't use them on a rental, they do usually screen cars entering the Park and no chains - no entry.

Yup - on my radar janisj - thx for the reminder. Route A is through Wanona, but that requires passing through higher elevation to get to the valley. Route B would be into the valley via 140 through El Portal. Does that make sense to you?

140 usually is your best option to avoid snow.

I'm also looking at YARTS as an option in case of weather. Perhaps park outside the park in Mariposa or El Portal, before any chain controls, and ride the bus into the Valley.

Digging through boxes to find all my winter weather/hiking gear. I don't intend to let (a little) ice or snow limit my hiking!

Too many darned unlabeled boxes to sort through. Ugh.