Manteca
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Manteca

Manteca

Central Valley crossroads between Yosemite, the Delta, and almond-and-pumpkin farmland around the Stanislaus River.

Manteca is a Central Valley city of around 90,000 people, tucked between Stockton and Modesto off Highway 99. It is not a destination in itself, but it sits at a remarkable crossroads: Yosemite is 90 minutes east via Highway 120, San Francisco is an hour west on Interstate 205, and the Stanislaus River parks and the California Delta are practically in the backyard.

The surrounding agricultural land grows almonds, pumpkins, and wine grapes in quantity — the Manteca area supplies over 80 percent of California's Halloween pumpkins, and the Delta region has dozens of small wineries. The river parks stretching along the Stanislaus offer hiking, camping, rafting, and fishing in a landscape of riparian woodland that once covered the entire Central Valley.

Downtown Manteca has retained a late-19th-century street grid and character, with Library Park as a gathering point and an active local events calendar. The Stanislaus River Parks are a short drive away, and the seasonal Dell'Osso Farms corn maze draws visitors from across the region in autumn.

Guide

Bars and Cafes

The Manteca area is almond and wine country — several wineries within a short drive offer tasting rooms. The Delicato Vineyards tasting room on Highway 99 is among the largest, while smaller family operations like Gnekow Family Winery are worth the short drive into the country. Kelley Brothers Brewing Co. in downtown Manteca, in a converted theatre building, handles the beer side of things.

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Day Trips

A hop, skip, and jump away

Yosemite National Park

90 minutes away via Highway 120. The breath-taking Cathedral of John Muir's beloved Range of Light-Yosemite Valley is perfect for day trips any time of the year as each season brings a different look to the world famous glacier-carved valley guarded by granite peaks such as El Capitan, Half Dome and Three Sisters.

[rate it]

tel: 209-372-0265

url: www.nps.gov

Old Sacramento

Just 45 minutes away via Highway 99. Old Sacramento is where the Pony Express ended its journey and was the western terminus of the transcontinental railroad. It is considered the best restoration of a Gold Rush town and water front in the West. It is also home to the largest railroad museum in the Western Hemisphere and hosts the Old Sacramento Jazz Festival every Memorial Day Weekend. You'll also find Arnold Schwarzenegger's haunts including the state Capitol that still ranks as the most opulent and ambitious restoration of a 19th-century government building anywhere in California.

tel: 916-442-8575

url: www.oldsacramento.com

San Francisco

Its fabled 49 hills, Chinatown, Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park with its all new state-of-the-art Exploratorium, Union Square and its world class shopping, Fishermen's Wharf and more is 60 minutes away vis Interstate 205.

tel: 415-362-7323

url: www.onlyinsanfrancisco.com

Napa Valley

Its world famous wineries and shoping is just 90 minutes away.

tel: 707-226-7459

url: www.napavalley.org

Sierra Railroad

Sierra Railroad and Oakdale antiquing are just 25 minutes away from Manteca via Highway 120. Ride and dine in restored Old West passenger cars while enjoying scenery unencumbered by power poles and other nuances. See why more than 75 movies and TV shows ranging from "Petticoat Junction" and western movies to "tel: 1-800-866-1690

url: www.sierrarailroad.com

San Jose

An hour away with such attractions as a Tech Museum of Innovation celebrating the birth of high-tech, one of the original 18th Century California Missions, Winchester Mystery House, and Great America.

tel: 1-800-SAN-JOSE

url: www.sanjose.org

Lodi Wine Country

Its 34 wineries that feature wine tasting rooms is just 30 minutes away.

tel: 1-800-798-1810

url: www.lodiwine.com

The Gold Country

Less than 60 minutes offering everything from Angels Camp where Mark Twain dremed up his famous jumping frog contest to bustling towns where restaurants, specialty stores, and others do business in buildings that date back over 120 years to wilder times. You can enjoy Columbia State Park just outside of Sonora that is a "living museum" as well as the only "working" Gold Country town of its own complete shops. Jamestown, on the way to Sonora, offers the Jamestown Railroad State Park with operating steam engines that you can ride. Sonora itself is a handsome former mining town with brick storefronts, antique shops and a couple of solid restaurants — a fine base for exploring the rest of the southern Mother Lode.

Guide

Getting There

Manteca sits on Highway 99, the main north–south corridor through California's Central Valley, about 75 miles east of San Francisco and 15 miles south of Stockton. Interstate 5 runs parallel to the west, accessible via the Highway 120 connector through Lathrop.

By train, the Lathrop/Manteca station on the border with the city of Lathrop is served by the Altamont Corridor Express (ACE), which runs commuter trains to the San Jose area on weekdays. Amtrak's San Joaquin route stops in Stockton, 15 miles north, with connecting bus service.

The nearest major airports are Sacramento (60 miles north) and San Francisco International (65 miles west). Modesto City-County Airport is closer at 25 miles but has limited services.

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Shopping in Manteca

Beyond the basics

Bass Pro Shops

America's most unique outdoors sporting goods store. Where else do you enter a store by passing through a 56-foot replica of the General Sherman--theworld's largest tree by volume--that's in Sequoia National Park? You can spend hours just meandering through the 120,000 square foot store marveling bellow a 30-foot soaring replica of Yosemite's El Capitan as well as trout swimming in a pond, view numerous murals depcting the great Nortern California outdoors and enjoying more than 3,500 area artifacts, antiques, pictures, mounts and memorabilia plus pictorial displays of California's hunting and fishing heritage.

type: Speciality shops

tel: 209-825-8400

url: www.basspro.com

address: 1356 Bass Pro Dr

Guide

Sights in Manteca

What to see

Murals

Manteca's murals are designed to give visitors, newcomers and longtime residents alike an insight into the community's culture, history, and economy. The Manteca Mural Society has finished 11 of 30 planned murals. The best place to start an easy walking tour of the murals completed so far is to start in the 200 block of East Yosemite Avenue of the downtown district. Pick up a walking tour guide at the CVB office or download at www.visitmanteca.org

Sierra's Crown: The first mural on your tour is part of the newly created Veterans Plaza in front of the Legion Hall in the 200 block, and depicts the Sierra Nevada range that forms the eastern horizon of the Manteca farm country.

type: Hotspots

tel: 877-998-2739

url: www.visitmanteca.org

address: Downtown Manteca

email: [email protected]

Guide

Things to Do

Manteca sits at the gateway to several of California's most famous outdoor destinations, but it has its own natural assets too. The Stanislaus River runs through the area, offering rafting, hiking, and camping at a series of parks stretching from the Sierra Nevada foothills to the San Joaquin. The California Delta is also close — over 1,000 miles of waterways popular with fishermen and water sports enthusiasts.

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When to Go

Spring is the most rewarding time to visit the Manteca area — the almond orchards around Ripon and Escalon bloom in late February, filling 20,000 acres with white blossoms, followed by the Almond Blossom Festival in Ripon six miles south. The Crossroads of California Street Fair brings nearly 500 vendors and entertainment to downtown Manteca on the first weekend in April. Summer brings the weekly Tuesday Farmers Market at Library Park (June through August). The Manteca Pumpkin Fair in October celebrates the area's status as one of the largest pumpkin-growing regions in the western US.