The drive between Mammoth and Truckee has some random interesting tourist attractions that we decided to check out! The first stop was Mono Lake. Mono Lake is a salt lake that is three times as salty as the ocean.
All the weird rock/salt/sand formations are called Tufa. And there was a massive wind storm raging on the opposite shore!!
We stood on some tufa to get a better view... but later realized we weren't supposed to. oops, sorry.
According to the information center, Mono Lake has one of the most productive ecosystems in the world, despite the fact that no fish (or anything bigger than brine shrimp) can live in the salty water. The brine shrimp, alkali flies, and algae feed thousands of migratory birds year round!
And the flowers are pretty too.
ahhhh.
We walked/bushwhacked though all those bushes to get to the Tufa and emerged scratched, dirty and sandy. We later realized that just down the road there were nice little walkways right to the beach. ugh.
HOW TUFA FORMS!
After a GREAT LEARNING SESSION....
We continued on our journey and decided to stop at "bodie" the GHOST TOWN!!
It was a booming Gold mining town in the late 1800's, but later got deserted and has been preserved ever since.
Creepy and cool...
Apparently at one point up to 10'000 people were living here!!
Traditional WC action.
It's almost at 9000 feet in the middle of nowhere... not so appealing.
It was cool to see but we arrived at 3:55pm and tourists are supposed to be out by 4:00pm. So we just did a car tour, but apparently the buildings are still furnished the way they were left. cards on the table and all!
We finally arrived back in Truckee to ANOTHER SNOW STORM.
im not impressed.
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