 |
| Mono Lake, March 1988 Lake Level 6,379.2' |
My most recent visit to Mono Lake provoked me to wonder whether I'd ever experienced such a high lake level (~6,383.8 feet) on any of my previous sixteen visits over the years. I looked back through my photo files and found that I actually had. In July and October 2006, the level was 6,384.5 feet, about 8.4 inches higher than now (give or take, since lake levels are reported by month, not by day, and the June '24 levels have yet to be tallied).
The lowest lake level I ever experienced was in June 1992, when the lake was at 6,374.4 feet (9.4 feet lower than now), so low that it opened up a land bridge to Negit Island, giving access by coyotes and other non-winged predators to nesting gulls.
Another thing I noticed about my photos during high lake levels (Oct. 2006, Aug. 2007, Oct. 2011, and Oct. 2023) is that they don't include shots of the South Tufa area. The only exception is a shot from July 2006, which shows how little beach existed between the tufa towers and the surrounding desert plant life.
Finally, I was surprised to find that until this past week, I last photographed the South Tufa area in 2013! I've been going instead to Navy Beach or Black Point, or I've skipped visiting the lake altogether despite being in the general area, due in part to a mildly humbug attitude about sharing a place where I once found solitude that has now become a stop for tour buses.
Even without a tour bus showing up on this trip, I found myself being followed around by a boisterous gaggle of shutterbugs, and a little later I even had to wait on one rude photographer who walked into my shot so he could get his own shot! It was kind of hilarious, but then again, there will always be people with single-minded purpose who will take what they want from Mono Lake.
Which is why it's so awesome that David Gaines was able to stop Goliath (the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, or DWP) from sucking the lake as dry as Owens Lake to the south, a project it began in 1941. Although the lake level is mandated to rise to the so-called Public Trust level of 6,392 feet (about eight feet higher than it is now, and a level not seen since the 1960s), DWP's continued water diversions from the streams that feed Mono Lake seem likely ensure that level is never reached. The more water that flows into the lake, the more DWP wants to divert.
 |
| Land Bridge to Negit Island, June 1992 Lake Level, 6,374.4' |
 |
| South Tufa and Wild Barley, June 1992 Lake Level, 6,374.4' |
 |
| Tufa and Glowing Clouds, September 1997 Lake Level, 6,382.2' |
 |
| Brine Flies at South Tufa, July 2006 Lake Level, 6,384.5' |
 |
| Tufa Spires, October 2008 Lake Level, 6,382.3' |
 |
| Photographers, October 2008 Lake Level, 6,382.3' |
 |
| Sunrise at South Tufa, May 2009 Lake Level, 6382.3' |
 |
| Island in the Lake, October 2009 Lake Level, 6,381.7' |
 |
| Tufa Silhouettes, August 2010 Lake Level, 6382.3' |
 |
| Photographers, June 2011 Lake Level, 6,382.6' |
 |
| Tufa and Photographers, October 2011 Lake Level, 6,383.7' |
 |
| Beach Tufa, May 2013 Lake Level, 6,382.0' |
 |
| Tufa and Encroaching Plant Life, June 2024 Lake Level, 6,383.8' |
There's a great shot by George Ward on the cover of John Hart's 1996 book, Storm Over Mono, that shows a low meadow of foxtail barley around the South Tufa area. I photographed foxtail barley at Mono Lake on my June 1992 visit but have never seen it there since. Speaking of changes, if the lake ever does regain its Public Trust level, I wonder if any of the tufa towers will still rise above the lake's surface. Check out these photos from the old days before 1940. (My favorite is Mono Craters, 1930, where a river runs through it.)
* * *
