Merced is a small city in California's Central Valley, best known as the gateway to Yosemite National Park — the western entrance is about 80 miles northeast along Highway 140. The city is also home to UC Merced, the newest campus in the UC system, opened in 2005.
The town itself is not a major destination, but it has a few diversions worth knowing about. The Castle Air Museum in nearby Atwater displays 44 vintage military aircraft outdoors, from a B-52 Stratofortress to a SR-71 Blackbird. The Grassland Wetlands of Merced County, a 25-square-mile area including several national wildlife refuges, are excellent for birdwatching — hundreds of thousands of migratory waterfowl winter here on the Pacific Flyway. The George Hicks Fancher Monument — a 36-foot granite obelisk in the town centre — is a Victorian curiosity that rather exceeds the significance of the man it commemorates.
Most visitors use Merced as a base or transit stop on the way to Yosemite. There are regular Amtrak and YARTS bus connections to the park.