Mono Lake Tufa State Reserve

Mono Lake Tufa State Reserve

Parks Directory of the United States / State Parks / California

Location: On Highway 395, 13 miles east of Yosemite National Park, near the town of Lee Vining.
Facilities: Trails, picnic areas.
Activities: Hiking, swimming, boating, cross-country skiing, wildlife viewing, guided tours.
Special Features: Surrounded by the Sierra Crest, volcanoes, and the Great Basin desert, the Reserve offers spectacular scenery, including unusual tufa formations that have developed under the lake's surface. These "tufa towers" are calcium-carbonate spires and knobs formed by interaction of freshwater springs and alkaline lake water. The ancient Mono Lake, more than a million years old, is one of the oldest in North America and is about 2.5 times as salty and 80 times as alkaline as the ocean.
Address: PO Box 99
Lee Vining, CA 93541
Phone: 760-647-6331;
Web: www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=514
Size: 55,300 acres.

---

See other parks in California.