Thursday, October 30, 2014

Reno to Mono Lake

Hello again, everyone.  Thanks for checking in from time to time.  As you probably guessed, we've had no connection at all for a week.  Some of our time has been in Death Valley and we just couldn't do it at all there.  So, we're connected  tonight and I'll try to start getting caught up starting at Reno.

Friday,October 24.

We stayed Thursday night at the Shamrock RV Park in Reno, NV.  Linda did laundry and I blogged and cleaned the trailer some and walked the dog.  You can start to see our division of responsibilities.  Then later we drove down Virginia Street into downtown Reno.

We walked along Virginia Street and went in a few casinos to see what the restaurants were serving then picked one.  We went to the Cal-Neva.  I had salmon and rice and Linda had steak and lobster.  Then we played a few games of Keno and lost a few dollars. 

I like Reno.  We were here once before, about 40 years ago.  It has grown, sprawled really.  It used to be just a little gambling mecca but I guess they have more industries here now along with improved highways.  But you still get the intimate feel of the little city walking downtown.  You can go from one casino to the next in a short distance.  They still have the old famous Reno sign across the street and a new one too.  See the pictures.

We left this morning heading south on U.S. 395 to Yosemite National Park.  There’s a 6-lane highway linking Reno and Carson City.  I remember Carson City as being a little town with a few casinos and a historical district downtown that showcased their western and gold prospecting past.  It has its own sprawl now with the typical fast food businesses, etc.  That pained me just a little.  I liked it better as I remembered it.

We’re camped tonight in a Forest Service Campground just west of Lee Vining, Ca. on Highway 120, about 10 miles from Yosemite East Entrance.  We’ll go into the park tomorrow.

As we climbed the last mountain pass to Lee Vining, we came upon a scene of a great big lake with islands and white material around the water’s edge that we couldn’t make out.  One of the pictures shows that high view.  When we got down the mountain we turned into a pullout and walked out to the water.  It turns out this is something pretty phenomemal.  This is Mono Lake.  It is in the western most geographic basin against the Sierra Nevada Mountains. 

Mountain streams from melting snow flow into Mono Lake but nothing flows out.  Evaporation maintains lake level.   But because no water flows out the lake gains minerals and salt and so it is a brine lake.  The salinity is 3 times ocean water.  There are no fish in it but there are brine shrimp and brine flies.  Migrating birds feed on both of these so Mono is a feeding stopover for them on the migrations.  I don’t think Mono is the only brine lake formed this way.  Somebody might look it up and comment on that.  I’m wondering if the Salton Sea in California isn’t the same.

The white around the lake is calcium carbonate formations.  They are formed in the water and exposed when the lake level is low.

Beginning in the early 1940s, the city of Los Angeles build pipe aquaducts to tap the streams flowing into Mono Lake.  That lowered the lake level and increased salinity over the years having  a detrimental effect on the lake, ecology and wildlife.  But that has changed for the better since the 1990s.  With pressure from environmentalists to save Mono Lake, they have been able to restore stream flow into the lake and improve its condition.  There is now a Visitor Center there, film and dioramas to educate the public on Mono Lake.  It turned out to be a nice little experience for us that we had no idea about until we hit the summit on that mountain pass.


New Reno Sign on Virginia Street


New Reno Sign on Virginia Street


Old Reno Sign a couple of blocks off Virginia Street


Mono Lake from a distance and elevation


Mono Lake and its Tufa


Mono Lake Sign


Mono Lake and Tufa

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