sunrise at Mono Lake
It has been a long standing ambition to see the Tufa at Mono Lake. Finally I have realised this ambition. To get there I drove on the 120 through Yosemite and over the Tioga pass. What a drive! If you are in any kind of hurry, then so be it, but make sure you stop at Olmsted Point.
After booking in at the Gateway motel (map here) I went about 8 miles south on US 395 and then turned left (east) on the 120. About 3 or 4 miles and past Panum crater (very new volcano at about 600 years old) you see the left turn to South Tufa.
Drive on the rough un-tarmac'd road to the car park and pay your $3, then walk on the trail to the shore.
The chemistry of Mono Lake comes from the fact that there is no outlet for the water. If the water level goes down it means evaporation is greater than the inflow. If it goes up then the inflow is greater. During the at ice age the water level was hundreds of feet higher. So like the Dead Sea the water contains a very high level of dissolved minerals, estimated at about 10% by volume.
The Tufa are formed by the the interaction of fresh water and the lake water. There is fresh water running off from the Sierras to the West, and it passes through the porous ground to the bedrock below. It continues downhill until it is under the lake where its bubbles up.
I went back for sunset, but was not blessed with great light. So I got up at 4.45 for sunrise at 5.15 ish. The light wasn't great overall, but for a few minutes there was a nice luminance.
Water diversions started in 1941 when the lake had a level of 6,417 feet and by 1982 the lake has lost 31% of its surface area and was at 6,372 feet. Among other environmental effects were the loss of bird breeding grounds and alkali heavy dust storms, which cannot have been pleasant for the local population. An order was passed in 1994 to allow the water level to recover by reducing the diversions. The water level is rather cyclical as you can see from the graph.
The tarmac path stops at the agreed target level of 6392 feet, which is 10 feet or so above today's level. This means many (all?) of the tufa I took photos of will be submerged again, though there will be others near what will be the new shoreline.
Some people have bathed in the lake and have reported the water as having a 'soapy' feel. I would not bathe in it.With its hypersalinity (about 3x the world's seas) and high alkalinity (pH=10), the 'water' is basically sodium hydroxide and the soapy feel is the alkali turning the fat in your skin into soap.
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