Written by Mike Rogge
Photographed by Josh Bishop
Cocina Michoacana is an authentic, solid Mexican restaurant in Groveland, California. It’s also open the latest, so Josh and I stumbled-in while the loaner R1S charged up at the nearby Rivian Outpost. The Outpost is new, Rivian’s take on a traditional gas station, but much nicer with good Wi-Fi, snacks and coffee and merch. Also, obviously, no gas. The town of Groveland sits about an hour from Curry Village in Yosemite National Park. It’s only 30 minutes from the park entrance.
That morning Josh drove north from Los Angeles. I drove south from North Lake Tahoe. When we met in Groveland, we went through the PR shuffle that is a press trip. The good folks from AllTrails, an app I’ve used sparingly through the years, gave us a demo of their massive update. AllTrails and MG are aligned in that we believe technology can be used to assist outdoor adventures, but generally that the outdoors aren’t a space for game-ification. I don’t know. I think it’s lame to try and attach any sort of point system to hiking, so it was nice to see AllTrails is, above all, a tool used to get off the beaten path. The offline mapping feature is clutch, especially when the best places in the world don’t typically have strong cell service.
Next, Rivian showed us around the second generation R1S. If you’re not familiar with Rivian, it’s an electric vehicle company made for and by outdoor enthusiasts. That much is clear the moment you sit in the front seat. If Outdoor Retailer was still at its height of influence and power, it wouldn’t be out of the question to see a brand like Rivian on display there amongst the tents, water bottles, and backpacks.
The R1S Max Pack has a 410-mile range and not once from Tahoe to Groveland to Yosemite back to Groveland back to Yosemite and finally back to Tahoe did I feel a tinge of so-called “range anxiety.” It helps that Rivian’s vehicles now have access to most Tesla SuperChargers and Rivian prioritizes putting its own chargers near outdoor epicenters like Groveland.
Also, and maybe this is just me, I like taking the 20-25 minutes it takes to charge from 20% to 80%-85%. I found this time nice to check-in with a contributor about an upcoming story, read a few chapters of a book, and relax. A fellow driver at a Lee Vining charger said he keeps a novel in the rig just for charging. These intentional moments of checking-out were unexpected and pretty nice. I didn’t believe that would be a bonus of driving an electric vehicle.
During this trip I learned several of the folks at both AllTrails and Rivian are subscribers, so big thanks to all of the people making these companies tick who subscribe to the magazine. Thank you. That was cool to see. MG subscribers are everywhere, man.
After the tour, Josh and I took the R1S into the valley. Admittedly, I haven’t spent nearly any time in Yosemite. This was Josh’s first trip. We sort of kooked out and didn’t totally know what to do or where to go. This brings us, hours later, to Cocina, the only restaurant open in Groveland.
Our waiter, Saul, noticed our cameras. Josh complimented Saul on the Nikon camera tattooed on the waiter’s forearm. We ordered fajitas and Saul shared his love of shooting photographs in the park. “I used to do it more,” he said, before sharing he’d recently welcomed a baby to his family. Josh and I asked where we should head in the morning. “Anywhere you like?”
Saul’s eyes lit up. “I got a place for you, but you have to leave at 3 a.m.” No problem, Saul. We were up for the early start.
Thanks to Saul’s rec, Josh and I had an epic, low-crowd sunrise hike. The scale of the place is difficult to describe. Telling you that Yosemite is awesome is sort of like offering to you that The Rolling Stones are a good band. These are known things in the world.
Saul had no obligation to give us any local beta. He did, though, because he’s a nice guy, a good local, trying to help two people find their way to a great experience. We took the advice of a waiter with a Nikon tattoo, followed his route on an adventure that led to maybe one of the most unexpected, best days of 2024. After sunrise, Josh and I spent a few hours biking around the valley on just the absolute jankiest, gearless, cruiser bikes imaginable, but the effort was worth it. The bikes did the job.
So thanks, Saul. You didn’t ask for this, but readers can follow his photography account at Instagram.com/a1vizualz or stop into Cocina Michoacana, talk cameras, and order the fajitas for two.
