After a night at Madera's Yosemite Hotel, tourists left at 6 A. M. in open stages rather than enclosed stagecoaches, whose design made them unpopular, to begin the trip to Yosemite Valley. The journey took 2 or 3 days depending on the road, road conditions, delays, and frequent holdups. One woman who lost 20 dollars in a holdup said, "I wouldn't have missed it for 100." About 72 horses were needed for each trip to Yosemite Valley, and each stage line owned about 600 horses and maintained stage stops every 7 or 8 miles to change them. In its heyday, many stages lined up in front of the hotel every morning. In 1886, when the railroad reached Wildcat Station (Raymond) in the foothills and avoided the infamous valley mud, the route's busiest days ended. In 1941, the W.P.A. and the California Public Works completed a modern highway to Friant, and Madera again became a major motorized stage line to Yosemite, serving as a gateway to Yosemite.