Two Week Road Trip: What are the "must sees" in the Central California? (Fresno: house, neighborhoods)

[NewToCA]

Originally Posted by neinei876

Definitely Yosemite National Park and the beaches that run down the coast (although they are on opposite ends).

I live in Fresno.. right in the middle of the central valley. I can't recommend anything that I can think of that stands out besides the two above, but maybe you can look into the Underground Gardens.

We went to the Forestiere Underground Gardens last month as a stop on our way to Las Vegas. It was absolutely incredible, and certainly worth a couple of hours to do the tour.

[cleosmom]

Originally Posted by Hopes

Thank you all so much!

New question!

I'm looking for a small town to stay in near Yosemite the night before our reservations inside Yosemite.

Fresno? Madera? Chowchilla? Merced? Are there any good missions to see in this vicinity?

This will be after Big Sur so I'm just looking for a quaint town where we can relax, eat dinner, and be charmed by it.

I am going to DM you, I have a slightly better idea than Fresno or Madera

[Podo944]

Originally Posted by Hopes

Hello, Podo944!

The rain boots are a great idea. We can stop at a Target along the way, grab some, toss them in the trunk, and donate them to Goodwill in Seattle.

Thanks for sharing all of that information about the Redwood Forest area. I'm ready to schedule my Redwood part of the trip now.

Do you think we should stay in the Redwood Forests for two nights? Or is one night enough?

On that trip we again started off after a 3 day visit with my brother in Redding. From there we went up the 5 to Grants Pass Oregon to have lunch with my cousin (who I hadn't seen in years) That took a little over 3 hours. We then headed to the Coast via the 199 aka the Redwood Hwy, and swung up to spend the night in Brookings Oregon. (Close to the boarder of California and beautiful!) That took us about 4 hours because we stopped for lunch and did a walk through the woods somewhere... can't remember at the moment.

From there we went south and did the Fern Canyon hike as well as another place that had a little tram thing that went up over the trees. (Again, I'm sorry I can't remember off the top of my head what the place is called) It was fun, if a little "touristy", but you have many choices for stopping at scenic places. So in a nutshell, we meanered down the coast enjoying the sights and then ended up in Ferndale for an over night. The drive from Brookings to Ferndale driving alone is about 2 1/2 hours, so we had plenty of time for "sight driving"
Ferndale is a sweet little town with lots of Victorian houses. Nothing particulary mind blowing there in my opinion, but we had our bikes with us, so we just rode around and enjoyed a few hours in town after breakfast before moving on down the coast.

Cheers!

[bountybligh]

Originally Posted by cleosmom

I am going to DM you, I have a slightly better idea than Fresno or Madera

Ohh, Coalinga? Good recommendation.

Thinking outside the box, I like it.

Originally Posted by NewToCA

We went to the Forestiere Underground Gardens last month as a stop on our way to Las Vegas. It was absolutely incredible, and certainly worth a couple of hours to do the tour.

Yeah, you can see our Hobbit hole. I almost said so in my post hehe. Or the Meux Home, and Kearney Park. Blossoms might still be hanging around a bit on the blossom trail in places, I'm not sure.

But overall if I spent the day in SLO, then drove this way, I'd just as soon head up the hills to Oakhurst and stay up there to wander about a little bit, rest, then get up to do Yosemite the next day.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by NewToCA

We went to the Forestiere Underground Gardens last month as a stop on our way to Las Vegas. It was absolutely incredible, and certainly worth a couple of hours to do the tour.

What are the Underground Gardens? I've never heard of them.

This is such a cool thread!

[bountybligh]

Off of 99 and Shaw I think. NW Fresno. Never been there myself.

An Armenian immigrant dug a large home out underground over many years. Pretty cool.

My nephew took a field trip and described it to me in a bit greater detail. He said he had fun, and didn't want to talk about it as I was interrupting soccer practice, haha.

Home

Oops, he was Italian, my bad.

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Originally Posted by Hopes

Thank you all so much!

New question!

I'm looking for a small town to stay in near Yosemite the night before our reservations inside Yosemite.

Fresno? Madera? Chowchilla? Merced? Are there any good missions to see in this vicinity?

This will be after Big Sur so I'm just looking for a quaint town where we can relax, eat dinner, and be charmed by it.

Hopes, I haven't read this entire thread yet (but I will), so I don't know if anybody has brought up the Mother Lode Country, Highway 49. The ultimate charming, quaint place to stay before Yosemite is IMO Jamestown on 49, nice little hotels, lots of good restaurants, and (if that has any interest) a great railroad museum with steam train rides (lots of movie history, too). I'll go over the thread to see if the Mother Lode is mentioned--if not, I'll come back with some suggestions!

[bountybligh]

I did in a DM. I suggested that way coming down from Tahoe if she went that way. Can go up it also from Yosemite to Tahoe. Good idea though.

[Think4Yourself]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

What are the Underground Gardens? I've never heard of them.

This is such a cool thread!

Around 1900 an Italian immigrant moved out to the central valley because land was cheap but it was hard to farm before the government put in massive irrigation networks because local rain fall was so low. To make farming possible and to making living in a borderline desert more enjoyable he dug a huge number of brick lines tunnels with windows cut out of the rock as well as openings in the ceiling to let light in. The temperatures inside are often 20-30 degrees lower than on the surface and he cleverly arranged for rain run off to be diverted into cisterns to be used to irrigate his orchards and grape vines despite not having any surface water to irrigate with. Think of it kind of like a hobbit hole (half above ground and half below) which covers 10 acres of land allowing his family to live comfortable without air conditioning or imported water; even his home made rain catchment system uses gravity to move water around the farm so it is extremely labor efficient and uses no pumps or electricity.

It's kind of an interesting historical thing but not something worth taking a whole trip to Fresno just to see but if you happen to be in that area it is worth a stop to find out low tech solutions to the problems of dry land farming & living.

[thebunny]

Haven't read the whole thread, but if you are in to wine, there are a lot of great wineries in the Paso Robles, Atascadero, SLO area.....