DEATH BY MOSQUITO
I said in one of my last posts that I was just going to have one final fling before summer for backpacking and hiking. However … I am a glutton for punishment. I wanted to get to Yosemite one more time to check out some new waterfalls that I have not been to yet. I thought it would be a good idea to bring the family for a camping trip and do these hikes with the crew. Big mistake. The plan did not work out very well. Even though Tioga Road had just opened a couple weeks ago, I was two weeks too late for this. The mosquitoes!
The mosquitoes in Tuolumne Meadows campground were horrendous when we arrived in the afternoon. We set up camp quickly and then left to wander around the meadows and visitor center area. It was beautiful along the Tuolumne River area with a nice breeze and no bugs there, so it was a very nice spot to relax. At about 4PM, it was time to go on our evening hike.
The plan was to hike down to Upper Tenaya Creek Falls and waterslide, and have our dinner at the waterfall.
It was not a very fun hike because of the mosquitoes. My poor son, Jadon. He inherits his sweet blood from myself and my mother, but he has it even worse than us. He had at least 10 visible bites on each of his arms and on each of his legs, and more than that elsewhere. The repellent did absolutely nothing for him whatsoever. I had zero visible bites, which I do not understand because they were definitely biting me A LOT. It was not very enjoyable. Down at the waterfall, we had some relief because there was a bit of a breeze and no mosquitoes there, so we ate our dinner in peace at the falls. However, when I went down to the bottom there was no breeze down there, and the mosquitoes were ridiculous, so I had to quickly take my photos of the lower cascades and run back up to my family (they did not come down with me to the bottom – and Jadon was thanking me profusely).
It was a very easy hike down to the waterfall, much easier than I expected, but it just would have been 100 times better with no mosquitoes. Well, I do think I would like to come back here someday. Tenaya Creek Falls was very beautiful but well below peak flow. The lower cascade especially would have been much better with a lot more water in the creek. It is a somewhat popular natural water slide in the summer, and I did see a girl sliding down into the pool at the bottom. She said the water was very cold.
We hiked back up the hill, arriving at the car after sunset. I gave Jadon the keys and he hiked back as fast as possible, but still got plenty of bites on the way. Poor kid. When we got back to the campground, we had some relief because of all the campfire smoke from other campers; there were no mosquitoes around. We relaxed a bit at the picnic table before heading into the tent for the night.
So all in all, even though it was a beautiful waterfall, it was not a very enjoyable hike. However, the next morning would be a million times better (for me, at least).