Mono Lake

Last week we visited the unique and beautiful Mono Lake, on the Eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This lake has an interesting history. It is one of the oldest lakes in North America and at one time was extremely large. However, in 1941 the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) began diverting massive amounts of water from the nearby rivers and streams that feed the lake to Los Angeles, about 350 miles south. This significantly changed the lake, dropping it 45 vertical feet and causing it to lose half of it's volume by 1991. This doubled the salinity level of the lake, making it three times saltier than the ocean and caused it to have an extremely high ph level. In 1994 the DWP agreed to allow water to flow into it and raise the lake to a "healthy" level. We've been visiting this lake for decades and watching it's progress. It has risen quite a bit since we first visited and only has about nine feet to go.

Mono Lake is a beautiful and unique place to visit. With a back drop of the Sierra Mountain Range (near Yosemite) to the west and desert with volcanic mountains on the other three sides, it's a sight to behold. Here is a a glimpse of it as I walked down a wood path toward the shore at "South Tufa" beach...


Mono isn't like any other lake we've ever seen. It is filled with springs that have a very high mineral content. As the water is released from the bottom of the lake, the minerals form Tufa. Tufa are hard, rock like formations. Because of the significant drop in lake/water level, these formations are visible around the shoreline. There are a lot less Tufa visible now than the last time we visited (that's good news) but there are still a lot to see. It ranges in height from ground level to 15 feet or more. In some places it's like walking on a different planet or something. Here are a few tufa towers...


Tufa varies in color and texture a bit but it's usually very rough and sharp. Here is a close-up of some of it...


Because of the high salt content and ph level, fish cannot live in this lake. However, it is very much alive with brine shrimp (like the "Sea Monkeys" a lot of people saw as kids). This is perfect for brine flies that feed on them. The flies cover a lot of the shoreline, making it black. All of the black in this picture is flies...


It seems like it would be really awful to be around but these flies aren't interested in people and you can walk right through them and they won't land on you. Instead, they fly up a few inches to a foot or so and make big black clouds and then quickly land again. It's kind of fun. The Gulls love the flies and their pupa. They can be seen running along the shoreline with their heads down, mouths open, scooping up flies. It's funny to watch.

Speaking of Gulls...80% (over 60,000) of California's Gulls migrate to Mono Lake each year to lay eggs and raise their young. That's a long way to fly from any beach in California! And, they have to fly over 14,000 foot mountains! What a great place for them though...they have several protected islands on the lake all to themselves...well...themselves and many other species of birds.


I'm thankful to the many people who worked tirelessly to make the importance of Mono Lake known and fight for it's "life", to bring water back to it before it was gone forever. Now it will be here for many more generations to visit, awe, and enjoy. Long live Mono Lake!

For more images and information about Mono Lake, you can visit http://www.monolake.org/

Come back soon to to see where we went next...the beauty was beyond words!