Mammoth Mountain - From mid-December to early January, Parallax Snowcat Dinners, a popular dining experience, starts guests with a fireside glass of champagne before hopping aboard a tricked out snowcat vehicle where the fun really begins. As you chug up the side of a mountain in the custom craft that seats 12, you dine on canapé hors d'ouevres and and prepare for a meal you'll never forget. At 9,630 feet above sea level and the Pacific Ocean that seems so far away, dinner is served at Mammoth's highest fine dining spot. Three courses and wine pairings later, you realize happiness is as simple as snowflakes, mountains, good food and wine. Costing around $129/person (kids are half price), the unique meal costs a lot less than another mountain top dining experience that's famous and every bit as much fun, Bracebridge Dinner at Yosemite National Park.  Seatings for the Snowcat experience are 5:30, 6:30 and  7:30pm with reservations required. Call: 800.MAMMOTH.

Yosemite National Park - Bracebridge Dinners. This annual dinner theater event includes a script with actors bringing to life a fictional account from The Squire of Bracebridge.  Audience members are participants in an elegant feast that lasts several hours in the Awhanee Lodge dining room with its high vaulted wood-beamed ceilings and expansive glass window views of the snow-covered meadows and mountains. It's not an event but a tradition for many who've attended this dinner for decades.

california sitemap / dining