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In the middle distance there rests upon the desert plain what appears to be a wide sheet of burnished metal, so even and brilliant is its surface. It is Lake Mono. At times the waters reflect the mountains beyond with strange distinctness and impress one as being in some way peculiar, but usually their ripples gleam and flash in the sunlight like the waves of ordinary lakes. No one would think from a distant view that the water which seems so bright and enticing is in reality so dense and alkaline that it would quickly cause death of a traveler who could find no other with which to quench his thirst.
Israel C. Russell
Quaternary History of the Mono Valley, 1889
A RICH COMMUNITY
Mono
Lake and its surrounding watershed encompass a unique
region in California. Sagebrush, Jeffrey pines,
volcanoes, tufa towers, gulls, grebes, brine shrimp,
alkali flies, freshwater streams, and alkaline waters
comprise an unlikely world at the transition between the
Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Great Basin Desert.
Pronghorn antelope graze in the Bodie Hills while
yellow-bellied Marmots bask in the High Sierra summer
sun. Great Basin spadefoot toads fill the evening air
with an endless chorus of croaking while Nighthawks hunt
for insects in the fading twilight. Trillions of brine
shrimp eat and mate beneath the briny waters of Mono Lake
as Wilson’s Phalaropes feast on alkali flies in
preparation for their non-stop flight to South America.
Embracing 14 different ecological zones, over 1000 plant
species, and roughly 400 recorded vertebrate species
within its watershed, Mono Lake and its surrounding basin
encompass one of California’s richest natural areas.
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