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Like many Bay Area residents, I’ve spent plenty of time on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada. But my husband and I recently took the plunge behind the “Granite Curtain,” dropping five miles and 3,000 feet from Yosemite National Park’s 9,941-foot Tioga Pass into the Eastern Sierra.
John Muir described this spectacular stretch of North America as “hot desert bounded by snow-laden mountains … frost and fire working together in the making of beauty.”
Set against this “frost and fire” landscape is Mono Lake, an ancient body of water that’s probably best known for its tufa towers, limestone formations that rise from the water, creating an otherworldly tableau.
I had long been curious to visit Mono Lake. It’s often referred to as California’s “Dead Sea.” Water flows in but it doesn’t flow out, leaving the lake saltier than the Pacific Ocean and too harsh for most species, except for rare types of shrimp and alkali flies.
Mark Twain described Mono Lake as a “solemn, silent, sail-less sea,” while Pink Floyd was so inspired by those tufa towers that the band featured them on the sleeve of their “Wish You Were Here” album.
“If you stand (by the lake) and be still, it reaches right into your soul,” says Phil Gordon, a bird lover and retired Hayward science teacher we met while visiting the tufa towers on the lake’s south shore. Gordon was at Mono Lake because it’s a major stop for millions of gulls and other migratory shorebirds making their annual round trips along the Western Hemisphere’s Pacific Flyway.
We first glimpsed Mono Lake as we wound our way into Lee Vining, a former mining camp that’s home now to an eclectic community of ranchers, artists and nature lovers. The lake, which covers more than 70 square miles in a basin of volcanic craters and sagebrush, was likely formed between 1 and 3 million years ago.
In Lee Vining, we started at the well-organized bookstore and information center run by the Mono Lake Committee, the nonprofit that has spent the last 40 years saving the lake from extinction due to excessive water diversions. The committee and the California state parks lead sunset tufa walks, weekend canoe tours and other programs that illustrate why Mono Lake is “this secret beautiful place hiding right here behind the Granite Curtain,” says Robert DiPaolo, the committee’s restoration field technician.
DiPaolo said the fall is an especially lovely time to visit, adding there is nothing like a nighttime swim in Mono Lake, where one can float “effortlessly” in its salty water and look up at an explosion of stars. “It’s like floating in space,” he said.
At the bookstore, you can also learn how Mono Lake occupies a significant place in the history of the same 20th-century water wars that sent Jack Nicholson sleuthing for killers in 1974’s “Chinatown.”
In 1941, Los Angeles began diverting water from Mono Lake’s tributary creeks. By the 1960s, the volume of the lake had been halved and its ecosystem was on the verge of collapse. Not wanting California to lose this natural treasure, scientists and conservationists formed the now nearly 20,000-member Mono Lake Committee, scoring a landmark legal victory in 1994 that limited water diversions to Los Angeles.
In the years since, Mono Lake has become a destination for researchers studying its bird migrations, geology, riparian creek habitats and rare alkali flies. The pupae of those flies were an important source of protein and fat for the Kutzadika’a people who have lived in the basin for centuries.
And on the south shore on this particular day, Gordon, a longtime volunteer with the Ohlone Audubon Society, was photographing a violet green swallow, nesting in one of the tufa towers. Up close, the tufa towers stand like giant drip sandcastles, formed over millennia by freshwater from underground springs interacting with the lake’s alkaline waters.
The air was scented by sage, utterly quiet until a larger bird began an extended song from atop one of the towers, broke the silence in the most uplifting way possible.
“That’s a sage thrasher,” Gordon says. “That’s one of the best I’ve ever heard.”
Potential mates, he adds, could probably hear its song for miles, echoing over this strange and beautiful landscape.
IF YOU GO
Mono Lake Committee Information Center: Learn more about the geology and natural, cultural and political history of Mono Lake, and explore a range of tours and seminars, including sunset tufa walks, summer canoe tours and visits to the lake’s tributary creeks and the Mono Basin. Programs in September and October focus on the area’s volcanic history, bird migrations and fall colors. Open 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, at the corner of Highway 395 and Third Street, Lee Vining; www.monolake.org.
Mono Basin History Museum: Learn about the Kutzadika’a, or Mono Lake Paiute Indians, who lived for centuries along Mono Lake, and about gold miner Leroy Vining, who led other settlers to establish ranches and farms here. Find the museum in an old school house at 129 Mattly Ave., Lee Vining; www.monobasinhistory.org.
Epic Cafe: Open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Saturday, serving meals made from local, organic ingredients. 349 Lee Vining Ave., Lee Vining; http://epiccafesierra.com.
Whoa Nellie Deli: Open daily from 6:30 a.m. to 9-ish p.m., serving tacos, burgers and wild buffalo meatloaf. Located at the Mobil Station, 22 Vista Point Road near the intersection of Highways 395 and 120, Lee Vining; www.whoanelliedeli.com.
Latte Da Coffee Café: This coffeehouse serves pastries, breakfast sandwiches, coffee and tea at the El Mono Motel, 51 Highway 395, Lee Vining; www.elmonomotel.com.