Mono Lake is famous for its "Tufa" towers, formed by the interaction of freshwater springs and alkaline lake water.
They were originally underwater, but the water level dropped dramatically when water was diverted in 1941 to provide for the growing city of Los Angeles.
By 1982 the situation was critical, but since then the diversion had been controlled, and the water level is slowly rising.
They have a long ways to go, though.
The trail through the tufa is just beautiful.
Eighty percent of the state's California gull population, up to 60,000 birds, return here each year to nest on the island in the lake.
See the black on the sand? Those are some of the zillions of alkali flies that inhabit the lake.
The gulls LOVE them!
A little farther east is Navy Beach, where there are tufas made of sand.
These delicate formations were formed by springs percolating through the sandy lake bottom.
Well, hi there!
All those flies gives me the creeps so I'm sure glad gulls have feasting so well.
ReplyDeleteGood for those gulls! Maybe I need to import some of those gulls around my RV. :c)
ReplyDeletehey di, i really like the cloud formation you get there next to the sierra .you guys boon docking?
ReplyDeleteOf course!
ReplyDeleteawesome.
ReplyDeleteHello! Just stumbled across your blog while trying to find some boondocking around Mono Lake. We just arrived today and we found a spot on the west side of 395, but I found your blog post from a few years ago saying there is great boondocking with views of the lake. I was wondering if you could share some info on where that spot is! We didn't have any luck finding it today but we're going to explore some more tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteNealys - please email me.
ReplyDelete