Once we were done spending the night in Mina, we asked the manager at the RV park if the road over to Mono Lake along highway 360 then 6 then 120 over to 395 going north to the Mono Lake Visitor's Center. She said, "It's a nice drive through forests and valley". But....she said nothing about 11% up and down grade. Ye gad....what a road! Up....at 15mph, then dowwwwwwwwwnnnnn!!!! It took us over 3 hours to go the 100+ miles....
But...some very nice scenery as we travelled, including some terrific vistas of the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains.
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| Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains |
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| This is what happens when the camera focuses in on the bugs instead of the meadow! |
When we finally got to Mono Lake, we stopped at the Visitor's Center to see what the big deal was. It's a great birding location.
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| Getting close to Mono Lake |
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| Mono Lake in the distance |
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| Gotta take a photo of the coach |
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| California Gull...Katie chased it for a while |
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| Looking east |
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| Looking west |
Call them weird, call them bizarre, call them what you will, but the unusual rock formations that grace Mono Lake's shores are known to geologists as tufa (too'-fah).
Tufa forms in a variety of ways at Mono Lake, but the most visible and remarkable formations are the towers that grace Mono's shoreline.
The greatest concentration of these towers is located at the South Tufa grove just off of Hwy 120 East, at the south end of Mono Lake.
We only stayed long enough to view the lake and walk through the center....we still had a few hours left to travel ahead of us.
http://www.monolake.org/about/
As we climbed out of the valley, we tried to get some photos...but...did not happen.
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| Lean forward so I can take the photo! |
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| Aaacckkk...where did that come from ? |
...and our Katie photo...on top of a huge log
Steve/Kim/Katie
