Went over to the park yesterday with my hiking partner as we heard Tioga road was opening for the season. So this is a Grzldvt tour, all 3 sections of the park in a day.
We did the Valley Floor to see the waterfalls, and it was an absolute zoo. Almost as crowded as it is in August. The falls were good but have seen it better. Drove up to Glacier Point and it took 15 minutes to get a spot. Mostly because no one knew the upper level had quite a few parking spots. We actually helped with that letting people know there were spots available. Glacier was also a zoo, and we were shocked to see how little snow was in the high country.
The selfie culture is very strong at this location... Had to laugh as we were in the minority by not having selfie sticks... LOL
Left Glacier and went up Toga Road. We did not get any snow until we hit the May Lake Road and even then it was incredibly spotty. Got to Tioga Pass and there were a couple big drifts, but you could see the snow was very spotty and trails were easily found. Talked to one of the rangers in the Kiosk to find out why it took so long to open the road, he was useless.
What I did discover is the FB page for the Tioga Pass Resort posted pictures of a very heavy late May snowfall, but still a month to open a major highway?? That was clear by mid June.
Based on the road opening so late, we thought we would be driving with 5-7 feet along the road, not spotty inches to maybe a foot.
We did not venture to far off road, but based on what we saw fairly deep in the woods the snow is going very fast.
No mosquitoes YET, but there is a pantload of standing water so I would suspect in the next two-three weeks there will be cloud of veracious blood suckers.
Been awhile since I have been to Mariposa, but we stopped in to the 1850 brewery for dinner and it was fantastic. highly recommend it.