28 mi
Arch Rock Entrance
The closest way into the park — 28 miles down Highway 140 along the Merced River. Start early: the gate queue builds through the morning.
Directions →
Things to do in Mariposa & YosemiteOur favorite ways to spend a day.
Everything we send guests who ask what to do while they are here — the park, the town, and the corners worth the drive.
Into the park
The Yosemite run.
Arch Rock is the closest gate — 28 miles, about 45 minutes down Highway 140, following the Merced River most of the way. Yosemite Valley is another ten miles or so past the entrance, roughly an hour from the cabin.
Leave early. The entrance queue builds through the morning, and an early start buys you the best light in the Valley.
Check whether you need a reservation. Whether one is required to drive into the park depends on the time of year, and the rules change — the park’s own page at recreation.gov/gateways/2991 is the current word.
There is a bus. YARTS picks up at Midpines County Park, a four-minute drive from the cabin, and runs into the park — useful on a day you would rather not think about the gate at all.
The drive in full → — the road, the timing, the driveway and what winter does to it.
~38 mi
Yosemite Valley
El Capitan, Half Dome, Yosemite Falls and Tunnel View, about ten miles past the entrance gate.
Directions →~31 mi
Mariposa Grove
Over 500 giant sequoias, including the Grizzly Giant and the California Tunnel Tree you can walk straight through.
Directions →
Eat, drink & stock up
Ten minutes down the hill.
Mariposa carries more than a town its size should — a brewery, a hidden wine and beer bar, pizza, and the grocery run you forgot to do on the way up.
~10 min
1850 Restaurant & Brewery
Beer, cocktails and mocktails with good indoor and patio seating — an easy stop on the drive back from the park.
Directions →~10 min
The Alley
A hidden gem just off Main Street: rotating craft beers, California wines, pretzels and cheese boards, sometimes live music or trivia.
Directions →~10 min
Pizza Factory
Fresh pizza made in view of the counter, another fire survivor, with a wall of history built from the ruins out back and the Mariposa mural outside.
Directions →~10 min
Pioneer Market
The full grocery run — bread, milk, eggs, everything you forgot to pack. Tesla Superchargers sit right outside.
Directions →
Town & history
A Gold Rush town that stayed.
Historic Main Street is ten minutes away and genuinely old: 19th-century storefronts, a granite jail standing since 1858, and two museums worth an hour each.
~10 min
Mariposa Museum & History Center
The story of this 1850s gold-rush mining town, told well and worth an hour.
Directions →~10 min
Historic Main Street
19th-century storefronts, boutique shops, and the Sierra Artists Gallery — plus the 1858 granite jail, still standing.
Directions →~10 min
Yosemite Climbing Museum
Artifacts, photographs and art tracing how climbing in Yosemite became what it is.
Directions →
Oakhurst & Bass Lake
South on Highway 41.
Yosemite's other gateway, and a lake to swim in — the slower way to spend a day when the Valley is busy.
~34 mi
Bass Lake
A Sierra reservoir up Highway 41 — swim, paddleboard, kayak, or rent a boat for the day. A slower pace than the Valley crowds.
Directions →~40 mi
Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad
A narrated steam-train ride through Sierra National Forest out of Fish Camp, past old logging sites — a hit with kids.
Directions →~27 mi
Oakhurst
Yosemite's other gateway town on Highway 41 — more restaurants and shops, plus the start of the Madera Wine Trail.
Directions →Getting around
Bring the car.
Everything here is a drive: the park is 28 miles east, groceries and dinner are ten minutes down the hill, and the lake and the sequoias are an hour each way. There is free parking at the cabin and a Level 2 charger on the deck if you arrive electric.
Dates matter too — the county's festival calendar is fuller than you would expect for its size. See what’s on while you’re here →
Somewhere to come back to.
Three bedrooms, a hot tub under the pines, and 28 miles between you and Yosemite.
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