Firefall Ranch Yosemite

Nice facilities with 24h hot tub and swimming pool. Food is good too and very cozy lodges. Some technical issues regarding payment but staff was fast to fix it. One drawback is it takes about an hour to drive to Yosemite but it’s manageable!

Pros: Brand new resort with modern and nice size rooms. On site market for snacks, wine and gift. Very nice large pool area with two large jacuzzis. Nice locker room with towels, showers and lockers. Plenty of activities for kids and parents. Front desk staff was pleasant. Excellent dinner at YOVA (Mary our server was wonderful!) Cons: No bathrobes in rooms. (Not a deal breaker, but would have been nice after using the jacuzzi.) Shower pressure in our room was terrible. If you have a question and ask more than one staff member you’ll always get a different answers. Onsite general store staff was always rude. The worst was the store manager Nasio. This is where it went sideways for me. We were told when checking in, if we plan on visiting Yosemite, we needed to carry chains in our car due to the “law” after November 1st whether snow is forecast or not. We were also told the Yosemite Park Rangers at the gate would check our vehicle to verify if we were carrying chains before allowing entrance into the park. No chains, no entrance. As a Northern California native and someone that visits the mountains frequently, I do understand the importance of carrying chains in the winter months even with my four wheel drive SUV equipped with Snow and Mud tires. However, as the weather forecast called for sun and 0% chance of precipitation for my entire three day visit and no snow had fallen above Groveland or Yosemite for weeks I did not travel with chains and questioned the front desk staff about this “law” and found their insistence for me to spend $100. in their gift shop on tire chains inconvenient and annoying. As it turned out, it’s nothing but a money grab for Firefall Ranch. Not knowing Yosemite Park chain requirements (my own fault) I took them at their word and purchased chains. I was told I could return them if they went unused. I knew that would be the case. When entering Yosemite the next day, I asked the park ranger at the gate if chains were required. She told me that there was no “chain control” that day and chains were NOT required. I also asked if they were checking vehicles to verify if visitors had chains and she told me ONLY when entering a designated chain control area, (“Designation is by a sign that says "chains required.") She said the staff at Firefall Ranch had given inaccurate information on the day we visited. When returning the chains at the gift shop that evening they wanted to deduct “a restocking fee” of $15.00 for chains they insisted we carry and weren’t actually required by the Yosemite National Park Service the day of our visit. Needless to say, after talking to the manager, they waived the “restocking fee”. Over the next couple days I did see quite a few guest returning chains (unused) back in the gift shop. I’m sure this is generating quite a bit of extra money for Firefall Ranch at $15.00 a pop. My advice, bring your own chains in the winter (snowing or not) don’t buy them from Firefall Ranch of their sis

My husband and I took a car trip to Yosemite. When booking our stay I discovered that Firefall Ranch had stand alone cabins but was also a resort which meant it had dining options, gift/snack/coffee shop/ beautiful pool, hot tub, and other available activities throughout the property and at their sister properties as well. Our cabin was a large one bedroom, with an indoor -outdoor fireplace, a very comfortable king bed, a lovely sitting area with table and sofa, a large deck, well appointed shower and bathroom facilities as well as a little kitchenette-ish area. The decor was tasteful and we thoroughly enjoyed the space. We stayed at Firefall Ranch for 4 nights. We had several breakfasts and 2 dinners there. We found it relaxing and "just right" after our days hiking and photographing in Yosemite. I want to give a shout out to the front desk staff who were especially helpful during our stay as well as to the servers in the restaurant who were welcoming and went above and beyond to make sure we enjoyed our meals. We would recommend Firefall Ranch and hope that others will enjoy it as much as we did.