Marvellous Mono Lake

The next stage of our road trip took us to Mono Lake on Tuesday. It only took about two and a half hours, however we passed through forests and plains, and from Nevada back into California. Our motel is in the little town of Lee Vining and although it’s called Lake View Lodge, it should really be called “ 'In the General Direction of the Lake' View Lodge” due to the lake being out of sight about a mile away. The atmosphere was somewhat hazy and the receptionist explained to us that this is due to forest fires about seven miles away. I rather like our wee motel; it couldn’t be more different from the swish Hyatt Regency at Lake Tahoe, but it’s perfectly clean and has its own charm.
Mono Lake is strange and wonderful. It is an inland sea, formed by the inflow of water from the surrounding mountains. However there is no outflow except for evaporation, which has led to the lake becoming more and more salty and alkaline. This process was accelerated since the 1940s when Los Angeles diverted the water sources for their own supplies. It has dropped forty feet since 1941, revealing the amazing tufa towers.
Tufa is made of calcium carbonate which is deposited when underground springs bubble through the lake. They gradually grow upwards and look like other worldly towers sticking up through the water and are stunningly beautiful. Storm Thorgeson certainly thought so in 1975 when he used them as the backdrop for his “diver without ripples” postcard in Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” album.
I just had to go swimming in the semi-opaque green blue water. And to my delight James came in too (He had been concerned that the alkali water would hurt his skin, but the lake is so unique that it was worth it. And we showered thoroughly later.) It was fantastic, you could just lie back and float while looking at the tufa and the lake and the mountains in the distance. The nearest mountains were the high Sierra, where we would be heading the next day. Another highlight was several pairs of ospreys nesting on top of tall tufas. The male was flying about on fishing trips to nearby lakes because there are no fish in Mono Lake, only wee shrimps. Right next to the lake is a thick band of alkali flies which are a food source for migrating birds, but it didn’t matter because they are not bitey at all. We went on the informative (and free!) walking tour which took about an hour, but we stayed on at Lake Mono until sunset, it was hard to tear ourselves away from its beauty.