Mono Lake

After wandering around in the dry, dead drainage below the one-quarter full Grant Lake we came down to Mono Lake. Even though it was just 10 am the sun was too bright to get great tufa shots but the walk from South Tufa to Navy Beach was interesting. I’ve never seen so many Eared Grebes in one place before. There was a bubbling cauldron hot spring. A tiny clear water spring emerging from below a tufa that drew a lot of birds. The fragile “sand tufa” reminiscent of magical hoodoo.
Michael is processing veggie oil.

Those of us who live in California are used to the bumper sticker “Save Mono Lake.” The death of this ancient Great Basin lake was imminent due to increasing salinity levels as LA drew off the water from four of the five creeks that fed the lake. Years of activist struggle against the LADWP brought about an agreement to allow the lake to stabilize. We haven’t gone round to the Visitor Center yet but it appears the land bridge to Negit Island is again under water (although the California Gulls still haven’t recolonized it the way they were expected to.) What is confusing is why the water level hasn’t come up more since the landmark court decision in 1994. It may be that the years of poor snow pack and warming will guarantee that Mono Lake will be permanently pitted against the swimming pools of southern California.