California is sports-crazy. Global sports celebrations and big games are staged year-round in the Golden State, featuring pro franchises, major-conference college teams, and individual tournaments like golf, tennis, big-wave surfing, big wall climbing and more. With Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area as venue hubs, seeing star athletes one day and heading for the world-class outdoor recreation of Yosemite Mariposa County the next is your best play for a sports-focused vacation win.
From stadium lights and the roar of the crowd to thundering waterfalls and titanic outdoor recreation: here’s a four-day itinerary designed for sports fans looking for a “championship” Yosemite journey!
Getting to Yosemite Mariposa County from L.A or S.F is a classic half-day California road trip. Taking it slow via one of the Golden State’s iconic highways is your best game plan. Roads with Yosemite National Park gate access include California Highways 41, 120, and 140. Along the way, you’ll travel scenic Sierra foothills with charming towns, curving country roads, roadside attractions, and scenic vista point turnouts. Enjoy the journey!
Yosemite is one of America’s most cherished national parks, and booking coveted inside-the-Park lodging in advance is the best practice. If Park reservations are tight, get creative and improvise! Yosemite is surrounded by charming small towns offering a star-studded bench of places to stay. El Portal, Mariposa, and Fish Camp all feature great hotels, motels, and vacation rentals with excellent guest amenities.
Spend your first full day in the place that earns superstar status for Yosemite National Park! Carved by Ice Age glaciers, Yosemite Valley is a natural “stadium” framed by skyscraping granite walls. You will marvel at its iconic rock formations, thundering waterfalls, sylvan forests, fields of wildflower meadows, with the mighty Merced River running through it all.
Yosemite’s trophy monuments – Half Dome, El Capitan, Yosemite Falls, Vernal Fall & Nevada Fall (both best viewed via the famed Mist Trail), Bridalveil Fall, and more – cluster in tight formation around the valley floor. Yosemite Valley is a hub for Park services, too, offering restaurants (click “Load More”), the Yosemite Exploration Center, lodging, tours, museums, and additional features.
Yosemite Valley is about seven miles long and just a mile wide, easily navigable in a day via vehicle, bicycle, or on foot. Lace up your hiking boots and prepare to be awestruck!
Yosemite Valley is the heart of the Park, but it’s a relatively small slice of this massive and magnificent wilderness. Savvy travelers will make the drive to the Park’s less-visited corners to fully immerse in hidden treasures. Here are four of Yosemite’s heroic underdogs:
Northern Yosemite is where the Park reaches skyward with Alpen-glow elevations and austere scenery. Picture giant slabs of granite, snowmelt rivers, and mountain meadows bursting with wildflowers. Tioga Pass / Highway 120 is your passport to this horizon-filling high country. Giving yourself a full day to explore its beauty is an absolute must. Services are limited, so fill a cooler with lunch provisions and check out places like Tenaya Lake and Tuolumne Meadows for a perfect picnic. Take advantage of scenic turnouts like Olmsted Point for scoring that panoramic selfie and get a taste of rock climbing with a quick scramble up Lembert Dome!
Southern Yosemite offers more ways to play, centered around the historic hamlet of Wawona. This tiny town just a few miles from Yosemite’s South gate has waterfalls, Merced River swimming holes, a pretty nine-hole golf course, and plenty of vacation rental cabins in Wawona and the nearby Yosemite West community to make for a perfect basecamp for your traveling team. Don’t miss the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias and the king of the grove, the “Grizzly Giant” tree.
Located high on the south rim of Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point delivers vistas among the most spectacular of any American national park. Drive to the end of 16-mile Glacier Point Road to reach the expansive viewing deck which dramatically surveys Yosemite Valley, Half Dome, and rushing waterfalls tumbling over the valley rim.
Stretch your legs along nearby trails that lead to wow-factor lookouts including Sentinel Dome & Taft Point, Washburn Point, and Dewey Point. Team manager’s tip: Wawona and Glacier Point are two Park corners which can be experienced in one winning day.
Tucked into Yosemite’s northwest corner, Hetch Hetchy Valley is just off Highway 120 and as one of Yosemite’s least-visited treasures, a classic underdog! O’Shaughnessy Dam at the valley’s west end provides a panoramic overlook of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and the untouched wilderness beyond. Follow the trail at the far end of the Dam to 1,000-foot-plus Wapama Fall, a 5.5 mile, relatively flat out-and-back.
If the game plan is spending four days in Yosemite, well done. If you can manage a little “extra time,” savor the win with an extended Yosemite Mariposa County escape! Splash around an inflatable water park; saddle up for horseback riding tours and bike tours; catch some live music; downhill, cross-country or snowboard at Badger Pass, a rare National Park ski resort; recover with a spa and wellness reset; go glamping!
Victory Lap: Where to Dine
After four days of discovering one of America’s foremost national parks, it’s time to load up the team van. Before you depart Yosemite Mariposa County, take a dining detour at one of the gateway town eateries. If you’re driving on Highway 140 through Mariposa, there’s 1850 Restaurant & Brewery, Happy Burger Diner, Little Shop of Ramen, High Country Health Foods Café, or family-style Mexican at Castillo’s or Don Rubens.
Exiting Yosemite’s South gate on Highway 41, check out Timberloft Pizzeria at Tenaya at Yosemite. And if you’re taking the high roads, here are two excellent culinary contenders: Coulter Cafe in Coulterville along Highway 49, and The Lucky Buck Cafe on Highway 120 in Buck Meadows.
A Note from the Rules Committee: Entering Yosemite National Park during certain times of year can require advance reservations, and new for 2026, Park entrance fees for international visitors have changed. Please check Yosemite’s official website for the latest information.