October 10th, the fifth day of the trip, consisted of a trip towards Mono Lake from Reno. Our first stop was in Walker Valley. The valley is quite narrow and left room only for the highway and a river. The river was a type of braided river. There's obvious marks of engineering in an attempt to combat the violent flooding of the river during the spring thaw. Stumps and logs had been placed in the area in an attempt to draw wildlife back into the area.
These have accidentally become projectiles carried by the torrent of the river. The wildlife vacated the valley due to the flooding, and probably will never return in any large numbers. Another place where the engineering is apparent is retaining walls which attempt to keep the flooding river from the highway. As evidenced by the debris covering the floor of the valley, the plans didn't account for the levels of the flooding.
Our second stop of the day was Bodie State Park. The park is centered around a gold-rush-era ghost town. The town was founded in 1859 by W.S. Bodie upon the discovery of gold in the hills of the area. Over the town's history, approximately $100 million in gold was pulled from the hills surrounding the town.
The town was finally vacated completely in 1976, although the cemetery is still in use to this day. The buildings in the park well-preserved, but there is an issue surrounding this. An argument is currently underway concerning whether or not to keep the buildings preserved, or to allow them to continue naturally deteriorating.
The next stop was the Mono Lake Park. Ironically, the park, which is hundreds of miles from Los Angeles, is property of Los Angeles County. Los Angeles owns Mono Lake and much of the surrounding land. This dates back to the early 1900's when the rapidly expanding city of Los Angeles was in dire need of drinking water. Their solution to the problem was to buy up lakes and surrounding lands in northern California. The city of Los Angeles began piping the water from these lakes to supply potable water for the population of Los Angeles. During the 1990's public distress with the falling water levels in Mono Lake forced the City of Los Angeles to limit the amounts of water being diverted from the lake in the hopes of preserving the lake. The water levels have already risen considerably since the decision.
After eating lunch and wandering around the park, we visited the Mono Lake Visitor Center. Contained inside were a gift shop and an impressive museum. The museum explained the history of Mono Lake and explained the differences between the three different types of tufa found at Mono Lake. The first type is called ice-age tufa. As might be deduced from the name, this type of tufa is the oldest found at the lake. It is made up of a lattice of crystals called triolite. The second type of tufa is called sand tufa. Sand tufa feels like sand paper to the touch and is very fragile (if it is removed from water it is easily blown away). Like all tufa, it was formed under water but it has a tube-like shape unlike other types of tufa.
The third type of tufa is lithoid tufa. The tufa seen around the lakeshore is all lithoid tufa. All three types of tufa are formed by freshwater springs bubbling up into the alkaline water of the lake. The lake's water is 1000 more times alkaline and 2.5 times more saline than seawater. Both these factors make the lake relatively inhospitable for life. There is also a short trail leading towards the lake from the visitor's center which overlooks the lake. Stops on the trail document the major features of the lake.
Our final stop of the day was the South Tufa trail on the south side of the lake. We walked the trail, which was new as of this year. The trail passes trough tufa formations as it winds towards the water. The trail gave a wonderful opportunity to view the wildlife that lives around the lake. Numerous species of birds inhabit the shores of the lake. Most were likely drawn by the incredible amounts of insects in the area. The most prevailant species of which was the alkali fly. The flies covered the six inches of shoreline closest to the water all the way around the lake. Unlike the house flies that most people are used to, the alkali flies kept to themselves and would relocate themselves if you got too close to them.
Angie Bressler took data for her research project at this location. CLICK HERE to view the project.
