The long game and it’s only a little piece of dirt so who really cares.
Why does anyone ever do any thing? That’s a good question, and I have a couple of divorces under my belt to highlight that question. But why would someone buy or pay $4,000,000 for a parcel of land next to Yosemite National Park that sure looks like prime Resort land and upscale homes real estate.
That what Kingsbarn (through related LLCs such as Sanctuary at Yosemite) owns roughly 83 acres (two ~40-acre parcels, historically known as Hazel Green Ranch) just outside Yosemite’s western boundary in the Stanislaus National Forest area, purchased in early 2024 for about $4 million.
Now what this interesting and why I write about it is, all it would take is roughly quarter-mile strip, access road to connect it to an existing Park road. Access that has been repeatedly denied over the years by both the parks services and even the courts.
Yet they still purchased the land. Without this access road, Sources say Resort or homeowners would have ~90 minutes / 1.5 hours, more than 10 miles from an entrance via the long Forest Service route
In exchange, Kingsbarn would buy and convey to the National Park Service other land of equivalent value in California (location not yet specified; potentially near Yosemite or elsewhere).
Who determines the value. A quarter mile of dirt isn’t worth much, an access road for a resort could be worth millions.
Interestingly there are noted business connections in other contexts (e.g., a separate deal involving firms with ties to Trump orbit figures), including an indirect link via Don Hankey (whose insurance company underwrote Trump’s $175 million bond in a New York civil fraud appeal) through a different real-estate transaction. These are not the same as the bond underwriter or poster being the party seeking or receiving the Yosemite land/access for a resort.
I am not suggesting anything other than the coincidence of timing and it is only a little piece of dirt.
