Spanning from the fertile plains of the San Joaquin Valley to the foothill elevations of Yosemite National Park, Madera County offers a bounty of surprises—barrel-aged port wines, freshly picked produce, Native American culture, vintage steam locomotives, ancient mammal fossils, and more. Start your adventures at the Visit Yosemite-Madera County Visitor Center in Oakhurst, or download the Madera County Visitors Guide.
Explore Agricultural Bounty in Madera County
Foraging at the region’s abundant farm stands is a must. In the city of Madera, Gabby’s Fruit Basket offers local honey, farm-fresh eggs, and edible plants like basil and chili peppers, which you can take home and harvest for cooking. Valorosi Farms Fruit Stand sells stone fruit, watermelons, figs, sweet corn, and Armenian cucumbers. In tiny North Fork, the Kern family operates The Gnarly Carrot, a shop and smoothie bar focused on locally grown, organic produce.
Another great culinary adventure is a drive through Madera wine country on the Madera Wine Trail, with stops at eight wineries in Madera, Oakhurst, O’Neals, and Friant. Tempt your palate with Quady Winery’s Muscats and dessert wines, Toca Madera’s Tempranillos, and Westbrook Winery’s Bordeaux varieties (their flagship wine, Fait Accompli, is a crowd-pleaser). The most decadent stop is Ficklin Vineyards, America’s oldest port producer, founded in 1946. Third-generation winemaker Peter Ficklin produces 50 different port varieties and luscious port-filled chocolates.
Where to Play Outdoors in Madera County
Take a single-lane, scenic drive on the Sierra Vista Scenic Byway starting from North Fork, home to the exact geographical center of California. On this 90-mile loop, feast your eyes on granite domes, glaciated peaks, and high mountain meadows. Pick up a byway map at the North Fork Visitors Center, fill your tank with gas, and plan on a full day. If seeing this mountain majesty inspires you to explore deeper, consider a guided hike with Southern Yosemite Mountain Guides.
In Yosemite National Park, don’t miss the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias, the largest one in the park. Fish Camp, just three miles south of Yosemite, the gentle quarter horses at Yosemite Trails Pack Station will take you for a mellow ride through shady pines and lush meadows. Only a few miles away, you can ride an “iron horse” at Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad. Two authentic narrow-gauge logger steam locomotives—one built in 1913 and another in 1928—pull passenger cars along a four-mile stretch of track through Sierra National Forest’s dense pines and incense cedars.
For summer fun on the water, head to Bass Lake, a four-mile-long, pine-rimmed bathtub that’s ideal for waterskiing, wakeboarding, and swimming. The fishing is great too—catch bass and kokanee salmon in summer and rainbow trout in spring and fall. Rent a fishing boat, jet ski, or wake-surf boat at Bass Lake Boat Rentals.
When the snow covers the foothills, head to Madera County’s lower elevations to get out on the water. In the winter months at Millerton Lake State Recreation Area, cruise the lake by boat and scan the sky for bald eagles.
Explore Culture and History in Madera County
Bring your kids to see the fossil remains of ancient mammoths, sloths, wolves, camels, and horses at the Fossil Discovery Center of Madera County, where treasures from the excavation of a site dating to the Middle Pleistocene epoch are on display. Saber-tooth cats and 10-ton Columbian mammoths roamed the San Joaquin Valley 700,000 years ago. In 1993, their fossils were uncovered at this Fairmead landfill, which is now a paleontology learning center.
Madera County’s pioneer heritage is on view at the Madera County Historical Society Museum inside the historic Madera County Courthouse. The Classic Revival building, built from local granite in 1901 and crowned by a 20-foot-tall clock tower, houses furnishings, clothing, and photos from the county’s founding years. In Oakhurst, a collection of historic buildings at Fresno Flats Historical Village reveals the daily life of early settlers. Take a self-guided tour through two furnished homes, a one-room schoolhouse, and two jails dating back to 1870 (while in town, a visit to the Yosemite Gateway Art Center is well worth a vist). You can go back even further in time with a visit to Coarsegold Historic Village, which has buildings dating back to the 1850s. The town was a hub of mining activity during the Gold Rush, and today visitors can shop for antiques in a converted school house, look for gold nuggets in Coarse Gold Creek (the occasional one does turn up), and dine at the Wild Fig Kitchen.
North Fork’s Sierra Mono Museum shares the cultural traditions of the western Mono tribes, from gorgeous woven baskets to commonly used tools. You’ll learn how the Mono Indians fished, hunted, gathered acorns, cooked meals, and played games. A large taxidermy display gives you a close view of the Sierra foothills’ furry fauna, including bobcats and badgers.
Where to Eat and Sleep in Madera County
Oakhurst’s South Gate Brewing Company brews a Tenaya Red IPA, Glacier Point Pale Ale, and Gold Diggin’ Blonde and serves them with brick-oven pizzas and grass-fed burgers. Smokehouse 41 delivers heaping plates of ribs, pulled pork, tri-tip, and chicken, all smoked on California oak for up to 14 hours. For a fine-dining experience, reserve a table at The Elderberry House, a restaurant steeped in old-world charm, or linger over the lake views at Ducey’s Bar and Grill at Bass Lake.
Bass Lake offers multiple overnight options, from the modern chalets at The Pines Resort to the rustic cabins at The Forks Resort and Miller’s Landing. In Fish Camp, you’ll find the bed-and-breakfast-style Big Creek Inn and the stylish resort-and-restaurant complex Tenaya at Yosemite. Oakhurst has the county’s largest concentration of lodgings, including the elegant Château du Sureau and two new hotels (opened in 2022), the Holiday Inn Express Oakhurst-Yosemite and Fairfield Inn and Suites Oakhurst-Yosemite.