Mono Lake

We visited the Mono Lake Visitor’s Center, and watched the movie there about the lake, which was very interesting and informative. Mono Lake is a salt water lake, because the fresh water that flows in over volcanic rock into the lake has no outlet (no water flows out of Mno Lake) and so the mineral concentration is high. That’s also what causes the fascinating tufas to form underwater. Because the lake level is lower than ideal, many of the tufas are exposed on the southern side of the lake. On Saturday afternoon, we arrived at the South Tufas of Mono Lake, just in time for a ranger guided tour. We learned about the plants that can grow in the salt plain, and how and why tufas are formed. The girls also got to help him create tufa in a small jar by adding calcium rich fresh water to the water of Mono Lake. They also helped him catch Brine shrimp, which along with the weird flies that breed there are the only animals that live in the lake. He also took us to see some ospreys that nest at the top of the tufas. The ospreys, which eat fish, nest at Mono Lake, but fly up to the lakes on the June Lake Loop to find fish. They join many other birds that nest there, including 85% of California Gulls which breed there. We also went over to Navy Beach on Mono Lake, which has sand tufas.