Mono Basin Journal
A roundup of less political events at Mono Lake
by Geoffrey McQuilkin
Flowers are the currency of the season, and in this unusually warm spring the Mono Basin is rich.
Arrow-leaved balsamroot blankets the mountain slopes, visible for miles, making the shafts of sunlight that pass through the afternoon thunderstorms strike the ground with especially glowing shades of yellow. Lately, a new color has grown into the mix as the brilliant green-yellow blooms of sulfur eriogonum have pushed up between balsamroot blooms.
Likewise turning things yellow is the antelope bitterbrush that sparkles in the supposedly monotonous sagebrush flats all around. Like a hillside shedding snow to the sun, the bitterbrush bloom began on the south side of the shrub, moving over the top and down to the northern branches as the warm weather continued.
Monsoonal flow has been sweeping into the Mono Basin, providing moisture for towering thunderclouds to build over the lake, and providing a medium for high altitude winds to shape long wave clouds which bloom with color at sunset.
The delicate pink blossoms of the desert peach have come and mostly gone, but lupine is still going strong. In one spot along the old highway, an abandoned gravel pit is cloaked in the blue flowers, spiced with vibrant red paintbrush, surrounded by bitterbrush blooming hard as the scent of sagebrush drifts by on breezes moistened by afternoon rains.
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