The amazing Mono Lake

California with its more than 38 million inhabitants is the most populous state in the US; it is also famous internationally because its big town Los Angeles thanks to Hollywood “suburb” is rightly considered the world capital of the film industry. But we are always looking for little known places where all is to discover…so, today, we with you will go to the small Mono County where the amazing Mono Lake is located.

This county has just over 13,000 inhabitants and it’s located east of the majestic Sierra Nevada, between the stunning Yosemite National Park and the border with the state of Nevada that is internationally famous for the city of Las Vegas considered the capital of entertainment and above all of gambling.

Let’s go back to our little and almost internationally unknown Mono County … we focus on a very special area… a really strange and curious place….

The Mono Lake is located in a desert area at almost 2,000 meters above sea level. Experts believe that it was formed 760 million years ago due to a Long Valley eruption. At north of its basin, on the Bodie hills, rocks, dated between 8 and 28 million years ago, were found!

Almost a Martian landscape! Its singularity intrigued the photographer Storm Thorgerson that portrayed the lake… this photo was included in the album “Wish Where Here” of Pink Floyd. This album was released in 1975.

The suggestive and spectral towers of tuff surrounding the lake are the salty residue of an ancient inland sea…. this place resolutely seems an extraterrestrial place!

Furthemore, the waters of the Mono Lake are extremely brackish… it’s very strange but it‘s real: they are two and a half times saltier than the oceans of our planet!

During the last ice age the lake could have reached 270 meters of depth, but today it has an average depth of only 17 meters. Among its waters there are two major islands, Negit and Paloha, and other smaller islands where different species of seabirds, like the western gull, nest. At dawn bird-watching lovers enjoy fabulous excursions and can indulge in portray the amazing Mono Lake with its beautiful colors.

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