This is Tom’s Waterfall. I don’t know who Tom is but he has a place and this waterfall is near his place so it must be his waterfall. I’m kidding. This waterfall is actually named Horsetail Falls but there a million Horsetail Falls in the world so this one should have a different name. That is what my wife said, anyway.
I was not planning to go here. I wanted to hike in the Lee Vining area. One word: thunderstorms. I checked the forecast before we left home. There were supposed to be thunderstorms in the afternoon but it looked to be clearing by 4pm. That should be perfect for my planned hike. We drove to Grant Lake in the morning and found a nice little beach with a bit of shade and played fetch with Journey. All morning long. She completely wore herself out but I was not worried about our afternoon hike. All she needs is a short rest and she is ready and roaring to go again. At lunch we went to Whoa Nellie Deli (a required stop at Lee Vining). Sadly it is no longer called Whoa Nellie. Maybe we should rename it to Whoa Journey. I checked for the updated forecast. Not good. Now it looked that it would be thunderstorming all afternoon and not stopping until well into the evening. I would not be able to go on my hike now. We would just have to drive back home. I don’t mind hiking in the rain but thunderstorms are a different beast. Plus I had Journey with me. She definitely would not want to hike in the pouring rain.
Down by Mammoth Lakes, however, it seemed that the rain would be stopping before 4PM. I could do the hike to Horsetail Falls down by Tom’s Place instead. I have not been to this one before and I was sure the waterfall would be flowing decent as the creek is a good sized one. We drove down to the trailhead and it was raining so we sat in the car and waited. Finally at about 3:30PM the rain let up. It was still drizzling or lightly raining but it seemed to be stopping so I figured we should start the hike. Tara waited in the car while Journey and I hiked up to the falls.
I had to keep Journey on the leash up to the waterfall. She did not want to hike today. It may have been partially because she was tired from playing fetch or because it was still raining, but mostly I think it was because she wanted mom to come with us. She did not want to leave her behind. It is strange because we did this exact thing at Lake Tahoe a couple weeks ago and she was great on that hike. She was perfectly fine hiking with me once I put her on the leash and once we got up close to the falls I took it off and she was great for the remainder of the hike. On the return hike down the mountain she was anxious to get back to mom quickly and was running way far ahead of me. But whenever I called for her to stop and wait for me to catch up, she would. Whoa Journey! She is such a good dog.
Horsetail Falls (this Horsetail Falls) is 75 ft. high. I have never seen any photos of it before which is odd because it is right along a very popular trail and you can easily see it from the trail. I was disappointed with the flow. As I said I was sure it would be flowing decent. Even when I looked at the map when I got back home it looks like a good size drainage. I don’t understand why it was so low. Anyway I do not regret coming here. I would not have been able to do any hike in Lee Vining that day and I had not been here before so it was worth coming here. I am sure I will be back some day. It was a fantastic day in the Eastern Sierra.
