Mono Lake

Click on above panorama to view photos of Mono Lake
(use your scroll bar to pan image)

The above panorama is of Mono Lake located just east of Yosemite National Park.

One of the oldest lakes in North America, Mono Lake is at least 760,000 years old and has had many fluctuations in size. Mono Lake has no natural outlet. For Thousands of years streams have carried minerals into the lake and evaporation has removed water from it. As a result of this process the mineral content has risen to almost 10%. This high mineral content contributes to the formation of tufa (pronounced toofah) in many areas of the lake. These tufa formation are the subject of many of the photos included in this section of the web site.

In the mid 1930s the city of Los Angeles began draining water from Mono Lake to add to their city's water supply. During the following years the water level decreased substantially. After years of efforts by conservationists and others who wanted to save Mono Lake, this theft of its waters was halted in the mid 1990s. Now the lake is restoring itself to its natural state.