Deer Creek

I left Yosemite and headed to my Airbnb about one hour away in Groveland. The phone signal wasn't stellar; it was in and out, so directions and other important information was spotty. I made an adjustment to my directions to include a stop at the store. I followed Google Maps and suddenly my 10 min drive turned into one hour drive. WTH happened?

I found myself on this little mountain road called Wards Ferry. I thought somehow I had crossed to the other side of the pass and by the time I realized what was happening, felt like it was too late to turn around. There wasn't a place to turn around anyway. Wards Ferry is a single lane small mountain pass road that traffic technically goes both directions, but there's only enough space for one car. It was so scary going around the mountains not knowing if someone was coming around from the other direction.

I have to tell you... I literally thought Google maps was trying to kill me, and I was cursing Google outloud and praying to God for my life. I passed about a dozen cars over the hour. One of us would have to pull over close to the mountain to let the other pass and hopefully not fall off the ledge. I almost had a head on collision with an SUV. He was coming down the mountain curve way too fast. We came within a foot of hitting each other. He slammed on brakes and I curved quickly into the mountain just enough to avoid hitting him but not so much as to smash into the rock.

There was a graffiti bridge... very interesting. The bridge was completely covered in graffiti. In the end, I made a complete circle and came back the exact same way I'd come the last 30 minutes of narrow mountain driving. I think Google routed me that way because it couldn't find any turn around spots, idk, but I'm feeling pretty certain I'm on a hit list.

It was a one hour turn around essentially, that while adventurous, threatened my wellbeing.

I found this link about Wards Ferry. They call it Murderer's Gulch.
https://www.abc10.com/article/news/greed-murder…

And here's another story about a tour bus that GPS routed that way and the bus got stuck. The passengers decided to get off the bus and come down another way: https://www.uniondemocrat.com/news/article_f143…

Thanks to God Almighty, I did make it to the house safely... I heated the rest of my leftovers for dinner and hung in the hammock. Tomorrow is fly home day.Læs mere