Fish Camp, California
Location: 2 miles (3 km) from Yosemite entrance; 32 miles (51 km) from Yosemite Valley; via Highway 41 (map)
Population 200; elevation 4,990 feet (1,520 meters)
Fish Camp, a tiny settlement with more hotel beds than permanent residents, lies in the forest just outside Yosemite's southern entrance. It's home to a few small inns; the immense Tenaya Lodge resort, which is owned by the same company that runs the hotels inside Yosemite; and the Narrow Gauge Inn, a hotel next door to a working antique choo-choo train.
Dining: The prices seem high for the standard sandwiches-and-stuff fare at Jackalope's in the Tenaya Lodge, but eating on the patio there at sunset just feels like the perfect cap to a long day's adventuring. There's a higher-end restaurant at the Narrow Gauge Inn that's open for dinners only.
Pro: Very pretty area; only two miles outside Yosemite's southern entrance and four miles from the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias.
Con: A lack of gas stations and general retail; if you're looking for a drug or grocery store, you'll need to drive back to Oakhurst, 13 miles south.
Things to do in Fish Camp
The Tenaya Lodge provides a variety of guided tours, a spa, and has its own climbing wall and outdoor ice-skating rink. It's also got large meeting and ballrooms that are frequently booked by organizations from around the area and the Central Valley; if you want to work on your party-crashing skills, you could have opportunities here. If you fail, you can retreat to the Jackalope's Bar & Grill just off the main entrance.
The Narrow Gauge Inn is next door to the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad, where you can ride an antique narrow-gauge logging train dating from the first decades of the 20th century.
Fish Camp is 7 miles (11 km) from the Wawona Hotel, where the lounge pianist is an institution, entrenched there for more than 20 years.
If you're a seriously badass athlete, come to Fish Camp for the Shadow of the Giants 50k, an ultramarathon, usually in June, that winds through the forest and a Giant Sequoia grove. If you're only moderately badass, you can do the 25k instead.