California’s Highway 49, also known as the Golden Chain Highway, connects a series of small, offbeat towns that boomed during the Gold Rush and now attract visitors as the gateway into some of California’s best natural scenery. The mostly two-lane highway also hugs the shores of remote lakes and rivers on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada and runs along the outskirts of Yosemite National Park, which is a great place to begin a road trip on the western slopes of California’s great mountain range.First of all, reservations are required to enter Yosemite, even if you’re just driving through.