Mono Lake Tufa State Reserve

I had never heard of this place prior to two days ago, when we were looking for something to see along hwy 395, on our way back home from Mammoth.
The Tufa Towers are quite beautiful and fascinating, possibly even a little eerie.
I recommend stopping by to experience it for yourself.
Have your camera ready to go. I took some fun shots!

Magical location. Go there at sunset. Do not let the wind discourage you.

Mono Lake is not your traditional lake. It’s over 750,000 years old, is saltier and more alkaline than any other lake you’ve come across and has giant limestone structures called tufa towers growing from beneath the lake. It was definitely a really fascinating experience.
We stopped over at the Mono Lake Visitor Center before we drove down to the lake. The views from the visitor center make for some really good pictures. The lake from afar looks quite different as compared to up close and personal. It’s a little slimier closer to the lake with many seagulls flying around. We didn’t find the time but I would recommend walking a little further, away from all the people and birds so you can see a lot more of the tufas.
If you’re thinking about fishing here you’re outta luck, the water is way too salty to inhabit anything except for some brine shrimp. I guess you could go for a dip in the lake but we were a little skeptical like most people there.

We visited the visitor center before taking picnic shortcut road to the lake access. The view of the lake from the visitor center is beautiful. The view from up above is actually nicer than that near the lake. The area near the lake has a lot of seagulls and smells a little bit funky. Either way I would recommend driving down and taking a look, it probably won’t take more than 10 – 15 minutes to look around.

This is a really cool place that you just have to check out. It is right off of 395. You can see it from the highway.

Tufa — A variety of limestone.
A must stop by if you’re ever doing a 395 road trip. It’s not even too much out of the way (30 minutes off the highway). The tufas are absolutely gorgeous and Mono Lake looks exactly like the photos.
Just some tips:
— To see the most tufas head to the SOUTH TUFAs. Drive past the visitor center and down 395S. Watch for signs for Mono Lake South Tufa. You will turn left onto 120 east. Follow this road down for ~5 min and you will turn onto a road that takes you to a parking lot. It cost $ 3 dollars to visit /​park.
— From there you will walk down a short path ~5 minutes to the lake. Super gorgeous! The trail is a round trip but one way isn’t paved and takes you through some grass.

It was a gorgeous day with ideal, pristine weather conditions. Warm and clear blue skies meant a view for miles and miles of the Eastern Sierra mountains along side the famous Mono Lake. Combine a sheet of glass-​like water with old water springs that look like ocean coral standing at attention, rising out of the water and it’s just impossible to take a bad picture. The walk is flat, easy and family friendly. Don’t forget to bring and display your national park pass on your vehicle dashboard for free day use. Otherwise at $ 3 per person, it’s a major bargain to get a glimpse and walk amongst pure beauty. Your soul will awaken and sing at this location. Not to be missed.

A wonderful quick stop on our way to mammoth. The lake is beautiful and there is not much walking if you are just wanting to make a quick stop and check it out. We went in late feb any the lake and the tufas were so pretty. To rip it off you cod get photos with the tufas in front and the snowy mountains in back. You will need a parking pass but they sell them there.

This place is pretty unbelievable. And because it’s winter time, there weren’t too many people. The lake beautifully reflects the snow-​covered sierras, and there’s staggering formations of tufas all around. The only downside are the gravel roads. You can get to the parking areas with a regular passenger vehicle. There’s several areas in the Reserve. The South Tufa area has the most spires. Navy Beach has the sand tufas. $ 3 fee to access this reserve (unless you have the annual state pass). Boating is allowed.

Do not miss seeing these if you have the opportunity. They are pretty damn amazing and altogether fascinating!
The parking is super easy and there is plenty of it. The nominal fee is worth every penny. My only wish is that there were not so many other people taking in the magic of them.
Unless you plan on staying solely on the wooden path and don’t plan on getting really up close to the tufas, wear clothes and shoes that you don’t mind getting a tad dirty in.
Take my advise though and as much as you may want to get away from all the tourists and think that venturing off the somewhat forged path is a great idea, take it from me… it isn’t! We ended up feeling like the elephants at La Brea Tar Pits stuck in knee deep mud!

Mono Lake was on our to do list for our road trip up the 395. So coming from Mammoth, just watch for signs that say Moni Lake Tufa Reserve. You turn right off the 395, and even though it says road closed 6 miles ahead, stay on the road cuz you turn off before the road closed area.
There is a fee stand, we put our $ 3.00 in the canister.
Plenty of parking. Toilets too.
The trail loops around so we walked the loop. The tufas were pretty cool. Good place to take pics!

Mysterious, fascinating, and off the beaten path. A lake with extraordinaire rocks structures floating in the salty water. These structures are sprouted everywhere surrounding the lake giving you somewhat of a mystical feel like you’re walking on an Atlantis kind of world perched on land. Come and explore the sunrise and stay to experiment the pink sky glow and shine on these Tufas rock structure. Bring lots of water, a picnic and relax on a flat rock and just listen. There’s no sound just beautifully quietness and silence. Appreciate the structures, the lake, the light that reflects upon the water. Meditate to the incredible peace and tranquility and allow yourself to experiment the most beautiful sunset ever. Mother Nature equals love and peace and this lake is her baby.

I actually saw this in some nature documentary and put it on my bucket list, I’m so glad I did because it still amazes me when I look at the photos. It looks like another planet. The first day we came here we went to the wrong side of the lake and we walked the long dock and looked on the tufas (Tufas btw are limestone which consists mostly of calcium carbonate, which btw is really just chalk or hard water or tums. Seriously. Not dangerous stuff.) with mild interest (because there weren’t very many). The next day we drove to the opposite end of the lake and hiked a long way to get to the lake itself. It was freezing cold but it was worth it because it was deserted, there were no signs on this end telling us that dogs couldn’t be permitted anywhere, and we saw deer, lines of leaping deer several times as we walked the mile or two to this side of the lake.
I want to go back in summer, but have a feeling the deserted cold was as good as it gets.

NOTE!!! DO NOT BASE YOUR SEARCH ON GOOGLE MAPS OFF THIS LOCATION!!! (READ ON!!!)
So let me tell you about my long trek to find this place. I took my girlfriend to Yosemite and it was a last minute spontaneous trip.(Literally planned the night before so hotels were RIDICULOUSLY expensive all around Yosemite area). I didn’t have any camping gear ready so that wasn’t an option ;(.
Anyways, I found a place in Lee Vining, which is a small town that sits right next to the lake. When I was researching online, I thought the town was as big as the towns in Tahoe. I was completely shocked when I got there. It was the smallest town I’ve ever been too. Interesting to say the least! Its actually what you see in the movies where I feel like everyone KNOWs everyone in town.
Was thinking about checking out Mono Lake (which is known for their TUFAs) early morning Sunday for Sunrise. but i thought what the heck, I wanted a little more sleep (good thing i did or else I would’ve gotten lost on my search). Woke up around 630 and headed straight to find the TUFAs. Whatever you do, look up where the South TUFAs are cuz that is the part of the lake where they have most of the TUFAs. I looked up «mono lake tufa state reserve» and it gave me another location that was 3 miles from it. It doesn’t sound as bad but imagine driving through a rocky dirt road the entire time trying to avoid rocks that can pop your tire lol)
I drove on the dirt road aimlessly. Luckily, after 20 mins of not being seeing any TUFAs, I saw a truck coming in the opposite direction. I flagged them down and thank god, he was a local and knew where the actual TUFAs were. So we continued on the dirt road for another few miles (when we could’ve actually drove around the whole thing on a paved road –_​_​_​_​_​-​)
Once you get to the TUFAs, it’s an amazing site especially with the history of how it all formed. As you walk along the trail, there are signs that with articles that tell you how Mono Lake came to be.
Overall, the lake was beautiful and worth the visit. It’s calming, relaxing, and a perfect place to let you reflect on life. (Not swimmable though since the salt level in it is 3x the amount in sea water)
Definitely try coming at sunrise or sunset if you’re looking to capture some nice shots (wish i did). The background and lighting is on point. (or so all the pictures say)

This place is way cool! It is amazing to see the different Tufas that are being created by (spoiler alert) fresh water mixing with the salt water to create calcium carbonate. It is like the inside of caves only on the outside. My 10 year old tells me that is looks like coral. She is right, it is the same material just created in a different way.
The other cool thing that we saw was a phalarope that had just returned from the Arctic summer vacation. In the next couple of weeks there will be about 2 million eared grebes on the lake.
What did I learn today? You can actually eat a brine shrimp (sea-​monkey). I however declined the opportunity.

Awesome! Seeing the Tufa up close and personal is really amazing. They are beautiful and so unique.
There is a parking lot with a good amount of parking available. You walk down to the water and get a great idea of what the water level used to be at by walking past plaques that give the water level and year. It’s really sad how Los Angeles drained the lake so much.
The only neat part, is that by draining the lake, the tufa were revealed. A marvel indeed, the tufa are very unique. You can really get up and personal with them and get some great photographs with mountain and/​or lake backgrounds.
There are tiny sand flies all over the edge of the lake which scamper away when you get too close. It’s cool to watch. The water was a nice cool temperature (July) and really blue.
We saw a rabbit and some swallows.

This is the SOUTHERN tufa (there’s a northern one as well) and you have to drive off the 395 to get to here. Follow the signs: D
You’ll get to a small parking area in which you have to pay $ 3 pp (children under 15 are free). You’ll get a pass to put in the car. Then you’ll walk down the path…
You get to enjoy the stalagmites (oh gosh. science terms) that were formed underwater and grew this way, but now has actually risen up and now you can see em. Follow the path to the other side, where you will see birds and little insects being eaten by the birds. There are volunteers here that will help you see other sights and give you background (yes… LA basin drained the lake, a little too much)… it’s so salty that you can actually smell the salt when you get nearby. Saltier than the ocean because of the fact that the water level has been lower– if it goes back to the 1940s original depth, then it’ll be fine. Follow the path, go all the way around, circle around and enjoy Mono Lake. You can also make your way up to nearby Navy Beach, a mile the to the East of this place. You walk back and you enjoy the views. There are nice mountain views if you have a sunny and clear day (:
Around Lee Vining, in case you ever wanted to go :)
OH and be careful– road is not paved partially.

What are those?
We stopped by here on two separate occasions during road trips on our way to Las Vegas. We drove to Mono Lake Basin on 395 to view the scenery and walk along the short trails, educating ourselves from reading the signs posted along the Mono Basin Visitor Center. We arrived here early morning and was not able to wait for the Visitor Center to open but we did view a beautiful sunrise that morning. There is also a museum just nearby… but what became interesting was from looking across the lake there were these… these things, we didn’t know what they were, they looked like some kind of formation that grew from the lake. Directions from the Visitor Center said to drive 5-​miles south on U.S. 395, turn left on Hwy 120 East and follow the signs to South Tufa… so we did! We had to check it out!
As we drove closer and closer to the location we noticed rows and rows of cream-​colored rock towers. These are called tufa. We parked our car (there is actually a designated parking area) and walked the trails. There are restrooms as well, did not have to use it so I don’t know how it is inside. We walked through a grove of tufa towers formed by underwater springs in the saline and alkaline lake. South Tufa would be the best place to begin a little exploration of Mono Lake. We followed the self-​guided trails and educated ourselves on Mono Lake’s unusual water, rocks and wildlife. We found out that this was often a stop for visitors. At one point we saw some professional photographers take some photos of these… these things!
South Tufa is a living lake! It is a vital habitat for millions of migratory and nesting birds. The trail, which is about a mile long, winds along the shoreline and among the tufa towers surrounding us with unusual beauty. As the lake level dropped, the tufa towers were exposed and the springs that formed them dried up. It was quite a scenery especially when you have the beautiful mountains in the background. On one of the signs it read that «these „tufa“ towers were hidden under water, but today they stand above the water level like an odd, abandoned city.» It was eerily fascinating.

Iconic lake of the Eastern Sierra. Everytime I go 395 south down to Mt. Whiteny area or going north to take Sonora pass, I usually stop here and appreciate the scenery and walk a little bit.
Mono lake offers a great view from everywhere. Near the lake is of course nice, also Mono lake seen by the top of Mt. Dana is also incredible.
Scientifically it is interesting, too. The new type of bacteria was reported by NASA and I am sure there are many more, just they are not found by human.

This is a great spot for a visit, enjoy, but do know it’s a bit off the beaten trail, as it is some five miles from HWY 395.
Also, not a lot of amenities here, but the visitor center nearby can rectify that.