Hwy41 or 140 to Yosemite?

Yeah, you twisted my arm! :) If they give you everything they claim they give you, then $445 is a steal. At least in my opinion. I'm not completely retired but only work part time on my own hours, but my wife still has to work for a couple of more years. So I can go up to Yosemite Lakes and set the motorhome up for two weeks at a time and commute to my work and work out of the motorhome. The wife can come up on the weekends. I also have one of their parks about 10 miles from where my wife works so I can even get a space there two weeks at a time and we can cut her commute down since it's 45 miles from home. So if I like doing that, the $445 will be well worth the expense. And if not, I like that fact that there is no commitment after a year. But I can see buying a full membership when we retire.

How did I cost you $445?? I didn't twist your arm.. i did not realize a 1 zone pass was that much, holy ****.. So far the thousand trails membership seems nice... I think you will like it.

And you cost me $445 today. After you mentioned Thousand Trails I decided to take another look at it, and they have $100 off for a one zone pass for the year. So I went ahead and bought it. I'll try it for a year and see how it works. They have a few parks at places I like to go so I'll check them out, including Yosemite Lakes. I've driven through the place but never stayed there.

Yeah it may have been a few extra miles but I was able to test and dial in a lot of things on that one trip...

Well then, that makes the few extra miles worth it then.

msmith1199 wrote:
I saw after I wrote my reply you had already been on your trip. The RV parks on 120 are great, but it seems a long way out of your way since you were coming from Visalia.

From Merced to the KOA is about 46 miles per Google. Not sure which scenic route you took, but since you went up Priest grade you drove at least 75 miles from Merced to Yosemite Lakes. The drive from Yosemite Lakes to Yosemite Village is about 30 miles. The drive from the KOA to Yosemite Village is 33 miles. Just for future reference.

I mostly use 120 myself and go up Priest Grade, only because for me from my house that is the shortest route by far. But 140 is the better route for not having to climb steep grades for long distances. There are hills to climb, but once you get over to Briceburg 140 follows along the banks of the Merced River all the way into the Yosemite Valley.

The scenic route I took was 99-HWY59-120... We have free camping at Yosemite lakes resort because it's a thousand trails resort and we're thousand trails members..

I saw after I wrote my reply you had already been on your trip. The RV parks on 120 are great, but it seems a long way out of your way since you were coming from Visalia.

From Merced to the KOA is about 46 miles per Google. Not sure which scenic route you took, but since you went up Priest grade you drove at least 75 miles from Merced to Yosemite Lakes. The drive from Yosemite Lakes to Yosemite Village is about 30 miles. The drive from the KOA to Yosemite Village is 33 miles. Just for future reference.

I mostly use 120 myself and go up Priest Grade, only because for me from my house that is the shortest route by far. But 140 is the better route for not having to climb steep grades for long distances. There are hills to climb, but once you get over to Briceburg 140 follows along the banks of the Merced River all the way into the Yosemite Valley.

I will have to try the 140 next time and check out the KOA campground..

Got home and now time to relax. The truck handled new priest grade a lot better once I got the brake controller dialed in. At the top I slowed down to 25mph and put it in 2nd gear and kept it between 25-30 mph and didn't have any problems... No hot brakes what so ever... I can say I'm sure minions have any issues on the passes going to Vegas

Cleetus wrote:
That's what I was planning on but the way the information on the website reads makes me think that there is height restrictions...that's the information I'm trying to clarify...

Those are all inside the park beyond the gate. I live 70 miles from Yosemite and go there all time and I would not take my motorhome into the park, other than crossing over Tioga pass to get to the other side. I don't use 41 so I don't know what's available over there, but there is a good KOA on 140 and on 120 you have Yosemite Pines RV and Yosemite Lakes. Both are close to the gate, but from the gate down to the valley is another 30 miles.

Since you are coming from Visalia, the KOA on 140 would be good for you. 140 is the easiest road into the park as it follows the Merced River up the valley and doesn't have the same hills as the other two roads.

Cleetus wrote:


That's exactly what we did. We took hwy /SR59 out of Merced and took the scenic route to HWY 120(also cut about an hour off travel time) to groveland and we're staying at the Yosemite lakes RV resort. Only one section slowed us down and that was the new priest grade. Dropped the truck into 2nd gear and slowly crawled up the hill.. Truck did fantastic handling the grade. The airbags in the rear helped a huge amount. Found on my brake controller that I had it on the wrong setting (after we pulled into our camp site of course) so we will see how it does going home down the hill. We have the entire camp site to ourselves right now so it's nice...

We stayed at the Yosemite Ridge Resort in Groveland which was great. Yes, the New Preist grade will get your attention. Going east, there are few pull outs that will fit a motorhome pulling a toad, and the drop off goes all the way to China.