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 Railcars.
Enjoy a narrated 4-mile round trip into the National Forest, as the conductor shares tales of long ago when the Madera Sugar Pine Lumber Company still operated along the same roadbed.
Choose to ride on an open-air log car or covered passenger car, and your well-behaved dog is also welcome on the trip. There are even homemade doggie treats on the menu at the lunch counter.
After the train pulls back into the station, you’ll have plenty of time to enjoy lunch in a beautiful setting, do some gold panning, tour the museum and browse the gift shops. Cab rides and tours of the engine house can also be arranged for those true train aficionados.
The Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad has the largest narrow gauge Shay locomotive ever built. The Number 10 and the Number 15 were the first and last Shay locomotives to leave the West Side Lumber Company’s property, and are still in service for all to enjoy.
At the Station Gift Shop, you’ll find an array of unique gifts and an interesting selection of books. Subjects range from trains to nature, Yosemite, local history, and some of the colorful characters who lent their names and escapades to the fascinating history of the mountain area.
At the Thornberry Museum, visitors will get a glimpse of logging life at the turn of the 20th century, and a scavenger hunt lets kids of all ages search for treasures inside, and receive a treat when they’ve completed their list. Museum admission and the scavenger hunt are free of charge.
To complete the journey back in time, visitors are invited to dip their hands into history and relive the excitement of the California Gold Rush by panning for gold in the authentic sluice boxes.
The prospector will teach you the proper techniques, just like the 49ers used, and gold-panners get to take home their treasure.
Guest can also enjoy an evening filled with entertainment during the weekly Moonlight Special on Saturdays. Start with a BBQ steak dinner in the picnic area, complete with musical entertainment, followed by a train ride to the half-way point, where everyone disembarks for an old-fashioned sing-a-long around the campfire.
Then, it’s all-aboard for the steam train ride back up to the station in the moonlight, as the whistle blows its lonesome sound out across the forest.
It’s a great family atmosphere, and the perfect outing for friends and family visiting from out of town. It’s also a wonderful place to bring the grandkids. There are folks who return year after year, and plan their vacation around a treasure that’s right in your own backyard.
Plan to make a day of it, and enjoy a 10% local discount on daytime steam train excursions through the end of the season with the above coupon. Visit ymsprr.com for more information.
The Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad is located at 56001 Highway 41 in Fish Camp.
Visit them on Facebook to see what’s happening at the Railroad.
A great piece of California railroad history and logging activities… Since 1999, already two visits made from Switzerland, and I’m planning a third one in 2015 or 2016.
If you are interested in history (people, economy, rail transportation, or development of California), that´s a place not to be missed. And with the books of Stauffer Publishing, you will learn a lot more!