Lakes- Mono Lake

A couple of years of ago I was very proud and happy when I overheard a conversation between my Mother and an aunt on Mother's Day. My Mother was saying ... My little one is grown up now. She has changed the roles, she is my Mom now ... Today I am happy because my Father was saying something like this to his friend ... My daughter can take perfect pictures even with a match box. I don't believe that I am so good as they claim but, it makes my life better :) I believe, though we cannot change destiny but most of the good things in our lives are because of our parents.

Well, another interesting destination in our recent trip to USA was Mono Lake amidst the spectacular Eastern Sierras of California. This very interesting large desert lake is oldest in North America (info from wiki) which was formed a million years ago. Studies show that it could be remnant of much larger lake. It seems the dry Mono Basin doesn't have outlet to ocean and hence the creeks flow into the lake and the salt dissolved in the water gets accumulated in the lake thus increasing the pH level. This makes Mono Lake a terminal lake. This shallow soda saline lake's water is alkaline. I touched the water, it was dense ... and then I tasted it, it was salty ...

Brine shrimp thrive in this waters. This makes the Mono Lake to have a productive ecosystem. Migratory birds feed on these brine shrimp. I saw many sea gulls around and swarms of alkaline flies. The gulls added to the serene beauty of the vast lake, but flies- yuk! 

Well, the history and ecosystem part, the unusual feature is the tufa towers. Tufa towers are calcium-carbonate spires formed in the alkaline water. They make the lake very attractive and interesting. The sunsets and sunrises near this lake are out of the world. Even in the afternoon the large blue ancient waterbody and the clear blue sky with those cotton-y clouds in the background look great. The lake is photographers paradise.

The lake is located near Lee Vining, California 13 miles from highway-395. A short walk from the Visitor Center at South Tufa entrance takes visitors to the world of salt tufas. Boating, hiking, camping facilities are available though I haven't done any of that. Take a sun-hat- around lake is exposed desert landscape which is dry and hot.

Nature is not only beautiful but very interesting. As I always say ... Nature never stops fascinating me!
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Leave a comment to share your beautiful thoughts :)

Click HERE to read about more stories from USA.

This post is linked to Nature Notes.

If you want pictures please ask me :)
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Scrapbook- A Travel Blog by Kusum Sanu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.