FISH CAMP – With the crowds of summer gone, this is the perfect time to spend the day with friends and family at the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad. Just 15 minutes from Oakhurst and 4 miles south of the entrance to Yosemite National Park, the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad offers excursions with authentic, historic Shay locomotives and Jenny ...

MARIPOSA – Get the family ready for a swell long weekend, as the Mariposa County Fair is in town for Labor Day, starting Friday, Aug. 29 and running through Monday, Sept. 1 at the Mariposa County Fairgrounds. This 76th edition of the fair, billed as “Boots, Buckles and Barrels of Fun,” will include carnival rides, food and drinks, livestock shows, ...

AHWAHNEE – World-renowned finger style guitarist Richard Smith cuts loose at Coolwater Ranch on Saturday, Oct. 4, at 7 p.m., and anyone who’s into fingerpicking and great music will want to be there. Smith’s fretboard fireworks and lyrical endeavors are designed to melt heartstrings, make toes tap and leave jaws hanging open.

MADERA COUNTY – The Madera County Film Commission is pleased to announce they just finished filming an NBC TV series – you may have seen the commercials – “Running Wild With Bear Gylls.” Survival expert/adventurer Bear Grylls and movie star Channing Tatum, of 22 Jump Street fame, spent last Monday night camped on top of Fresno Dome in the Sierra ...

OAKHURST – Summer is time for fun and time for learning at the Children’s Museum of the Sierra in Oakhurst. Kids (and their parents) are welcome to join Museum volunteers for an hour or so of entertaining and educations activities. The schedule for July:

“Well, here I am in a foreign land again. I saw a Dutch windmill the other day, and it’s just like in the books I used to read, but you don’t see any flowers or rosy-cheeked girls in sun bonnets. Instead, you see shell craters, ruined houses. Some of the girls are pretty, but I wouldn’t trade two dozen of ...

OAKHURST – Six exciting regions of Yosemite will be represented through a series of fun interactive displays including vendors, food and beverages, at a family-friendly event coming soon to the Oakhurst Community Park. Mark your calender for the inaugural Yosemite Festival, set for Saturday, June 28. Be on the lookout for special appearances by such luminaries as Abraham Lincoln and ...

MADERA COUNTY – Warning: be careful what you read about Sierra Freepackers. You may just want to become one. The Backcountry Horsemen of California Sierra Freepackers Unit is comprised of a cross-section of volunteers who work in concert with the Forest Service and others to keep public riding trails open and safe for horses and their humans. Many of the ...

Frank Gauthier’s background in law enforcement, the military and the private sector has provided him with experience he says is very unusual in politics, and uniquely qualifies him to be Sheriff of Madera County. Frank is an Air Force brat who was born in Germany in 1966, and raised in Madera County, where his father Milt was with the Sheriff’s ...

OAKHURST – Kids, it’s time to get out your crayons, markers, colored pencils or paints: the 2014 Smokey Bear Coloring Contest is here, and entries have a chance to win some really great prizes! The deadline for submissions is June 20.