Coarsegold - Oakhurst - Fish Camp
Local attractions
Gold-rush history, a steam railroad, a casino resort - and one very famous spider.
Beyond the lake and the trails, the Highway 41 corridor keeps a full calendar - gold-rush history, a steam railroad, a casino resort, and one festival you will not find anywhere else.
Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino - Coarsegold
Right next door to Indian Lakes Estates: gaming floor, hotel towers, restaurants, and a summer concert series that brings national acts to the foothills. Whatever your take on casinos, it's the area's biggest employer and its community grants fund local parks and programs - including improvements in ILE itself. chukchansigold.com
Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad - Fish Camp
A narrow-gauge steam railroad running through the pines above Fish Camp, on the grade the loggers cut a century ago. The Logger steam trains and the evening Moonlight Specials are a rite of passage with kids or visiting family.
Fresno Flats Historical Village - Oakhurst
A preserved 1870s mountain settlement: original homes, a one-room schoolhouse, jail, and wagon barn, kept by local volunteers. The best hour of gold-rush history in the area, and the picnic grounds under the oaks are a quiet lunch spot.
Coarsegold Historic Village & the Tarantula Awareness Festival
Shops, events and living gold-camp history in old Coarsegold year-round - and every late October, the Tarantula Awareness Festival celebrates the big, harmless males that wander the foothills looking for mates each fall. Costume contests, hairy-leg contests, tarantula races, and genuine local pride in a spider. Only in Coarsegold.
Ziplines, horses & tasting rooms
Yosemite Ziplines and Adventure Ranch runs zip tours and gold panning outside Oakhurst; local outfitters saddle up toward the high country in season; and Oakhurst's small tasting scene - Idle Hour Winery and company - makes an easy afternoon. Oakhurst Community Park anchors the farmers market and summer concerts.
Mark the calendar
Fourth of July - fireworks over Bass Lake. Late October - Tarantula Awareness Festival in Coarsegold. Summer - concerts at Chukchansi and in the Oakhurst park. December - the Sugar Pine Railroad's holiday trains sell out early.