Catheys Valley, CA

Catheys Valley is a Mariposa County census-designated place along Highway 140, about 22 miles northeast of Merced and eight miles southwest of Mariposa. The 2020 census counted 829 residents. Andrew Cathey settled in the valley around 1850, and the place still reads as a ranching community stretched along the road into the Sierra foothills. Highway 140 is the key local line: it carries the valley toward Mariposa and Yosemite while side roads peel off toward ranches, oak country, and Hornitos. The valley's appeal is in the details you see from the road - old oaks, rolling grassland, wildflowers in season, birds over the fields, and the mariposite monument built by local volunteers to remember the Cathey family.

ATTRThomas Farley / CC0

The Catheys Valley community plan treats Highway 140 as the gateway into Mariposa County, which is exactly how it feels on the ground. Catheys Valley's local scoop is a ranching stretch between Merced and Mariposa where the highway, the old family name, and the foothill landscape all stay in view.