Mono Lake

Sunday, we spent the day exploring the Mono Lake area.  This lake, with no outlet, is notable for many reasons.

Mono Lake is two and a half times saltier than the oceans.  For many years, Los Angeles was diverting the streams that fed into the lake, causing the level to drop.  The lake lost about half its volume.  Legislation in 1994 set a goal of maintaining a minimum level.  That is a lightning caused fire in the background.

Tufa towers are mineral deposits caused by underwater springs.  They are now exposed from the dropping of the water level. 

These are brine shrimp.  No fish can live in the water, but the lake is a vast supply of brine shrimp and alkali flies - important food sources for migratory birds.

Not only birds eat the flies; the Native Americans, the Kutzadia'a, collected the fly pupae and used them as one of their main food sources.

Here a California Gull runs and scoops flies with its mouth open.  Mono Lake is the exclusive nesting
site of the California Gull.

 A tufa dinosaur?

Some of the tufa towers are 30 feet high and had osprey and osprey nests on them.

Gail scale.

Craters surround three sides of Mono Lake.  The ones on the south side form the youngest mountain range in North America.

The gnarled remains of a small tree on Panum Crater.  We took the trail up and around the rim of Panum Crater, which erupted 640 years ago.

The core of the crater has toppled pinnacles of obsidian.

The obsidian had alternating bands of pumice - a rock so light, that it floats.

The trail around the inside rim of Panum Crater.

Driving back out from the crater.

Flowers make us smile!

This mobile in the visitor center is of Wilson's Phalaropes which are one of the many species of birds that depend on Mono Lake during their migrations.  These little birds fly for 72 hours without stopping as they cross a big section of the Pacific Ocean to get to South America.

In a coffee shop Gail spotted this centipede (?) .

This is not a picture of Hurricane Sandy, but is indeed our motel room.  Never stay at the Mammoth Lakes Motel 6 if you can help it.

Heading south the next morning, we passed "Brown's Town", a really cute, clean, RV / camping park with golf course.  It was a trove of antiques and local history.

Further south on 395 is the Japanese internment camp of Manzanar.  There used to be 8 guard towers like this one with machine guns aimed inwards at Japanese Americans being held during WWII.  The big building was the gym, and is now a museum / visitor  center.

 

As we passed through Lone Pine, we could see Mt. Whitney, at 14,550 feet, it is the tallest mountain in the Lower 48.

This is a motel room, Route 66 style.

The motel office.  Well, that concludes the story of our trip to the east side of the Sierras.  I apologize for all the pictures - we started with 288.