This ancient California lake traps everything that enters — and turns it to stone

It’s 760,000 years old and counting

Mono Lake sits along Highway 395 in California’s Eastern Sierra, just outside the small town of Lee Vining. The lake covers about 65 square miles, and it has no outlet to the ocean.

For hundreds of thousands of years, Sierra streams carried salts and minerals into the basin, and freshwater evaporated while everything else stayed behind.

The result is water about 2.5 times saltier than the ocean and so alkaline it feels like another substance entirely. What grew out of that chemistry is the reason people come from all over the world.

The Kootzaduka’a have called this basin home for centuries

Long before anyone mapped the Eastern Sierra, the Kootzaduka’a people, the southernmost band of the Northern Paiute, lived in the Mono Basin.

Their name comes from their practice of harvesting alkali fly pupae along the lakeshore.

They moved with the seasons, collecting fly pupae in spring, gathering pine nuts in autumn, and hunting rabbits through winter. Members of the tribe still live near Mono Lake today and carry on traditional practices.

The Kootzaduka’a have been working toward federal recognition since the 1970s.

Calcium carbonate spires built themselves underwater for centuries

The towers you see rising from the shore are made of calcium carbonate, the same material as limestone. They formed underwater, where calcium-rich freshwater springs met the lake’s carbonate-heavy water.

Over decades and centuries, the mineral built up around each spring opening, and some towers grew roughly 30 feet tall.

They stayed hidden beneath the surface until Los Angeles began diverting the lake’s feeder streams in 1941, and the water dropped.

Once exposed to air, the towers stop growing and turn fragile, so you should never touch or climb on them.

A lawsuit saved the lake from drying up completely

Los Angeles pulled water from Mono Lake’s feeder streams for decades, and by the early 1980s, the lake had dropped 45 feet.

The Mono Lake Committee was formed in 1978 and partnered with the Audubon Society to sue the city.

In 1983, the California Supreme Court ruled the state had a duty to protect places like Mono Lake under the public trust doctrine.

Then in 1994, the State Water Board ordered limits on diversions and set a target level for recovery. The lake has been rising slowly ever since.

Walk a mile through the tallest tufa grove at South Tufa

South Tufa holds the biggest concentration of tufa towers along the lakeshore.

A one-mile self-guided nature trail loops through the formations with signs that explain how they grew and what lives in the water around them.

Admission runs $3 per adult, kids get in free, and national park annual passes work here, too. During the summer, free naturalist-led walking tours run daily.

California State Parks and Inyo National Forest manage the area together, so you get rangers from both sides.

Trillions of brine shrimp thrive where no fish can survive

No fish live in Mono Lake. The water is too salty and alkaline for them.

But trillions of brine shrimp, each about the size of your thumbnail, do just fine. They feed on microscopic algae and, in turn, feed almost every bird that lands here.

Along the shore, alkali flies swarm by the millions, but they won’t bite you or even land on you. These flies can actually dive underwater, wrapped in a tiny air bubble formed by water-repellent hairs on their bodies.

The lake runs on this simple, strange food chain.

Two million migratory birds stop here every year

Mono Lake sits on the Pacific Flyway, and up to two million migratory birds pass through each year. The lake holds the second-largest California gull nesting colony in North America, behind only the Great Salt Lake.

Wilson’s phalaropes show up in summer, double their body weight by feeding on flies, then fly 3,000 miles nonstop to South America. You can also spot eared grebes, red-necked phalaropes, ospreys, and snowy plovers.

Bring binoculars, and look for guided bird walks during the summer months.

Float on your back without even trying

Swimming in Mono Lake feels like nothing else. The high salt content makes you so buoyant that you float on the surface without kicking.

The water has a slippery, almost soapy feel. Navy Beach on the south shore is the best place to get in.

Keep the water out of your eyes and away from any cuts, because it stings.

Bring a jug of fresh water and rinse off when you get out, or the mineral residue will dry on your skin and remind you where you’ve been all day.

Paddle a kayak through the towers up close

From the water, the tufa formations look even stranger. Kayaking and canoeing let you get right up next to them and peer into the lake beneath.

The Mono Lake Committee runs guided canoe tours on summer weekends from Navy Beach. Caldera Kayaks, a local outfitter with more than 20 years on the lake, leads guided kayak trips as well.

You might spot underwater tufa towers, bubbling springs, brine shrimp, and nesting ospreys from your boat.

All island access closes from April 1 through Aug 1 to protect nesting gulls.

Sunrise turns the towers into mirror images on glass

Photographers come from around the world to shoot the tufa towers against the Sierra Nevada. Sunrise is the time to go, when the water sits calm and glassy, and the towers reflect perfectly on the surface.

At sunset, oranges and pinks spread across the sky and bounce off the lake.

The area around Lee Vining has almost no light pollution, which makes it one of the best spots in California for Milky Way photography.

Near Navy Beach, the Sand Tufa area holds smaller, more delicate formations with branching shapes worth a closer look.

Step inside a 700-year-old volcano at Panum Crater

Panum Crater sits just south of Mono Lake off Highway 120, and it is only about 600 to 700 years old. That makes it the youngest and most accessible volcano in the Mono Craters chain.

A trail takes you up to the crater rim, where you can look out across Mono Lake and the Sierra Nevada in one sweep.

A shorter trail climbs to the central dome, and there you can see obsidian and pumice sitting side by side. The Mono Lake Committee leads free guided geology walks on summer weekends.

The 2025 Inn Fire closed one area but spared the towers

The Inn Fire burned 728 acres near Mono Lake’s northwest shore in May 2025.

It destroyed the State Reserve boardwalk at County Park on the north shore, and that area remains closed. But the tufa towers themselves came through without damage.

South Tufa, Navy Beach, Old Marina, and Panum Crater all stay open and accessible.

Before you drive out, check with the Mono Basin Scenic Area Visitor Center for the latest conditions, so you know exactly what to expect when you arrive.

Explore Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve in California

You can find the reserve along Highway 395, about 13 miles east of Yosemite National Park, near Lee Vining.

Start at the Mono Basin Scenic Area Visitor Center, just off Highway 395 north of town, for exhibits and trip planning. To reach South Tufa, turn onto Highway 120 East and drive about five miles.

Admission is $3 per adult and free for kids under 16.

While you’re in the area, the ghost town of Bodie sits about 14 miles north of Highway 270, and the June Lake Loop, a 15-mile alpine drive, starts about 10 miles south.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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