It's About the (RV) Journey....: Mono Lake................

We pulled into our new "backyard" at Lee Vining, and brought with us some unsettled weather. The snow that fell the night before made for some really nice backdrops to this lake. We woke up to a bit of snow at the campground as well, but thankfully it melted pretty quickly. That was a first for us. We are paying attention to the weather reports, because we are at higher elevation now here in Lee Vining. Its about 7000 feet, so if you go "up" at all, you could be in for a bit of a surprise. Being that we don't even have snow tires, let alone chains, we are not taking any chances with weather.

Between the raindrops, we were able to make a visit to the South Tufa area of Mono Lake. Mono Lake is a saline lake in the middle of the desert with no outlet to the ocean. Dissolved salts from runoff increase the salinity and raise the pH of the lake. It is about 3 times saltier than the ocean. No fish here in this extremely salty environment. Algae, Brine Shrimp and flies thrive in this habitat, making it an important stopover for migrating and nesting birds. For more information on Mono Lake, click here.

The tufa towers are formed of calcium carbonate (limestone), formed from fresh underwater springs (introducing calcium) mixing with the carbonate in the alkaline lake. These tufa towers are formed underwater, and we can see them now due to the lower level of lake water (water diversion to Los Angeles as well as evaporation).

Signs along the nature trail indicate previous levels of the lake, and the level at which it is aiming for. That is why we can see tufa in the sagebrush area. The water level has fallen dramatically over the years.

Mono Lake

tufa towers at Mono Lake

tufa towers

these were formed under water

crazy looking

This is where the lake was in 1959

very cool limestone stalks (tufa)

This is the ideal level of the lake....the mandated level according to the signage

As we reached the water's edge, the views were outstanding. Especially nice were the snow covered mountains as a backdrop to these tufa towers. The colors were striking too, at least on the day we visited. We could see the algae bloom was starting to change the color of the lake along the shoreline.

pretty scene

more tufa....was once under water

another magical place

so pretty

looks like a castle forming

so cool

are we having fun?

what a scene

the water doesn't feel THAT cold...guess it would never freeze with all the salt in there!

some of these tufa's formed arches

each tufa was formed from an underground spring?

the water level really dropped

awesome with the snow-covered mountains in the background there

lots of tufa

tufa garden

some of these are really tall

crazy configurations

otherworldly scene

love the colors

algae gives it the yellow/green color

amazing

taller than you Tom!

very cool

the sun is starting to warm us up

heading back to the trail

just so cool

hey...it is a sunny day after all!

starting to ~~thaw out~~ warm up

This is an active volcanic area, and there are cinder cones and calderas in a few places. Tom is pointing to a caldera in one of the pictures below. There is a smaller one nearby that we plan to hike around in the coming weeks.

This is an important migratory area for seabirds, however, we did not see too many birds. We were surprised by that. Possibly this is the wrong season for that :) We did see some ducks, but they were pretty far off and very shy.

see the volcano?

ducks floating among the tufa

they were very shy

hello

As we took the trail back to the parking area, we could really see how the lake has dried up. Its amazing. We did see some birds in the tall grasses we passed. I can tell you this too.....there were a ton of biting bugs of some sort, and they liked me! Arg! I'm pretty itchy today.

so much tufa here

wow

you can see how much the lake has emptied

cool

Californians are working on restoring the lake

we usually go the long way (need to get our fitbit steps in for our competitions!)

this was underwater at one time

we see you

another bird...perched up high

I just want to say...there are so many biting bugs here in this area!

Tom isn't getting bit, but I sure am

singing us a song

very changeable weather!

The weather has been quite changeable, and we have been trying to take walks and explore in between the raindrops. Later in the afternoon, we walked from the campground to the Visitor Center, which is only about a mile away. The views of Mono Lake were a little different! The Visitor Center looked fairly new, and was really nice. We saw not one, but two good movies! One on Fire and Ice (Mono Lake) and the other on Yosemite. We had some hiking questions for the park ranger, and asked his thoughts about when Tioga Pass would be open to get to Yosemite. Unfortunately, it seems snow is expected this entire weekend up at the pass, and that will delay the clearing of the road until after Memorial Day. Too bad for us. Looks as though we will not be visiting Yosemite, even though we are so close.