Mono Lake Tufa State Reserve - Escape from L.A.

Mono Lake is among the oldest lakes in North America, and it anchors the western end of the Great Basin with Great Salt Lake on the eastern end.  The Great Basin has no outlet to the ocean, so water is lost only through evaporation.  The salts left behind create a salty and alkaline environment that supports a surprising amount of life.  Between 4 trillion and 12 trillion brine shrimp populate Mono Lake, along with the alkali fly which begins its life underwater, and is also found in abundance during warmer months.  Thanks to the prodigious number of shrimp and flies, Mono Lake provides a nesting ground for over 2 million migratory birds each year!

Thankfully, one man, David Gaines, realized how special this place was in 1978.  At the time, the Vampire that is Los Angeles had sucked over half of the water out of Mono Lake by diverting the creeks that flow into it with callous disregard for the destruction of the environment.  David Gaines realized that L.A. had sucked the life and every drop of water out of Owens Lake, and that Mono would be next.  His activism, with the support of many others, and ultimately the action of the California court system, saved the lake.  By 1982, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power had sucked more than half of the water out of Mono Lake.  In human terms, they lowered the lake level by 45 feet, taking it from 4.3 million acre-feet of water to only 2.1 million acre-feet.  Thanks to David Gaines, LADWP now only receives 25% of the water that should flow into Mono Lake, and guidelines are in place to prevent the lake from being drawn down to levels that would risk killing all life.  As the lake level dropped, the salinity doubled, putting the brine shrimp and alkali fly populations at risk.  No shrimp, no flies - no birds.  Fortunately, the Mono Lake Committee had the foresight to negotiate a deal whereby LADWP received funding to build a waste water reclamation facility, so now L.A. residents can drink their own excrement instead of the clean water of the High Sierra.

On a beautiful winter day with none of the wind that has been whipping across northern California, the Tufa rising out of Mono Lake create an otherworldly spectacle.

Mono Lake Tufa State Reserve provides a number of trails to access the lake, and an unimproved boat ramp.  Only a few days ago, another threat to Mono Lake, California's inability to control its public debt, was deflected.  This park was slated for closure, but funding has been found in the form of parking fees for the park. 

The Tufa shown in these photos are the equivalent of fossilized springs.  As fresh water rises up through fault lines and enters the hypersaline water of Mono Lake, the interaction of calcium-rich fresh water and carbonates in the salt water forms these calcium carbonate towers.  As the water levels were drawn down, the tufa towers were exposed.  Check out the moon keyholed in a tufa tower below!

Thanks again to the incredible loss of water in Mono Lake, the loop trail at South Tufa takes you through immense gardens of tufa now exposed on dry land.

The unique and interesting tidbits about Mono Lake just keep coming!  Did you know that NASA found the first organism ever that is able to replace some of its phosphorus with arsenic in order to sustain its growth when starved of phosphorus?  This discovery is still being debated.  As well, Storm Thorgerson's fantastic photo The Diver was taken here for the album Wish You Were Here.  It shows a man diving into Mono Lake without creating a ripple, with the Tufa Towers in the background.  It was created by having the diver do a handstand until all of the ripples had faded away.