Campground check-in is from 4 - 7 PM. We recommend you arrive in the early afternoon to have time to set up your camp, relax, and meet your fellow participants. Campfire and singing start at 5 PM, and dinner is at 6 PM. Goat Meadow campground is at an elevation of approximately 5300', so please factor this into your planning.
Download route maps or view the route in Google Maps and see terrain, satellite view, and get directions to Goat Meadow.
On Thursday, breakfast is served at 7 AM. The directors will then escort you to the staging area, and the wagons will leave at 8 AM with the riders shortly after.
We will travel approximately 2 miles on highway 41, escorted by the California Highway Patrol. Then its approximately 5.5 miles on a dirt road to Summit Camp, where coffee and donuts await us courtesy of the Mariposa Oddfellows. Restrooms and water are available. Summit Camp is at an elevation of approximately 5800', and is the highest point on the trip.
After refueling, we continue on to Cedar Point Ranch, our next campsite, in time for lunch. Located on the Chowchilla Mountain dirt road, the ranch was used during World War II as a rest and recreation facility for pilots flying out of Castle Air Force Base. Cedar Point Ranch is at an elevation of approximately 4000'. We arrive at our next campsite, the historic Darrah School at MacReady corners, in time for lunch. In the late afternoon a no-host bar will be set up, and a hearty dinner of cowboy stew will be served at 6 PM. After dinner, get ready for another evening of entertainment around the campfire, and a raffle featuring great prizes donated by local merchants and businesses. There'll be more music by local musicians, and great stories by long-time Mariposa County residents. "We invite the old-timers to tell tales in exchange for a free meal," comments Wagon Master Wilson on this favorite form of Old West entertainment. The wagon train ends here, but not the festivities. Take care of your animals, rest, freshen up and change clothes if you like, then head over to Building A (Sequoia Hall) for some great entertainment. Come-as-you-are is fine for the dinner and dance, but a lot of us have fun dressing in "period finery"!
After lunch, kick back and relax until the evening meal, or run into town for anything you may have forgotten. After dinner, local musicians and wagon train participants bring out their musical instruments for an evening of singing around the campfire.
On Friday, breakfast is served at 7:30 AM, and we ride out at 8:30 AM.
On Saturday, after breakfast at 7:30 AM, we ride out at 8:30 AM. We'll take a short break at Cole Road (bathrooms are available), then cross paths with the present at Highway 49, the "Golden Chain Highway" which links all the historic gold rush towns along the Sierra Nevada foothills. The California Highway Patrol then escorts the wagon train to the Mariposa County Fairgrounds for lunch.
Saturday Evening begins with Cowboy Poetry from 4 - 6 PM, featuring the work of well-known and local poets such as Mariposa's own Bud Puckett and Dr. Madison Seamans.
Plan on staying for the Chuck Wagon Dinner and Country Western Dance immediately following Cowboy Poetry. Lots of great raffle prizes will be given away, and awards will be given for the most authentically dressed participants, most memorable, plus some other fun categories...
If you have questions, please call Dianne at 209-966-3414 or Kathleen at 209-742-8377, or send email to info@mariposawagontrain.org.
