Spring is upon us, and with it the opening of campgrounds and the thawing of lakes for fishing season opener this Saturday, April 30. Following is a list of open campgrounds, as well as the conditions of lakes, in the Mono Basin and surrounding areas.

Open campgrounds:

Oh! Ridge, Gull Lake, Silver Lake, Lower Lee Vining, and county campgrounds on Lundy Creek. You can see information about all Mono Basin campgrounds here.

For up-to-date campground information, visit the Inyo National Forest’s website here.

Fishing conditions: (more…)

The road (Highway 270) to Bodie is now open, and you can drive to one and a half miles of the park. At that point you need to park at the gate—be sure not to block it—and walk, ski, or snowshoe the rest of the way into Bodie. Skis, snowshoes, or good boots are still necessary to walk around the town of Bodie as well.

California’s state parks are a valuable part of the state’s cultural and natural history.

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Ever since NASA broke the news in December about the discovery of a bacterium from Mono Lake that appears to use arsenic in place of phosphorous, we’ve been talking fairly often with Dr. Ron Oremland, one of the lead scientists from the US Geological Survey working on the team. He has studied Mono Lake for decades and knows its microbes and chemistry well. He answered our questions about the discovery so that we could write an article about it in the Mono Lake Newsletter and accurately interpret it for the public, and he sent us a batch of his scientific papers related to Mono Lake and arsenic which we’ve posted on the Mono Basin Clearinghouse.

Ron will be speaking on Tuesday April 26th at the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory (more…)

The bare Committee storefront, stripped of old paint and waiting for new stucco.

Due to windy, cold weather (typical of a Mono Basin spring!), the second phase of the Mono Lake Committee’s storefront remodel will not begin until Wednesday, April 27. Putting on the new plaster requires warm overnight temperatures, and it looks like Wednesday night will be above freezing.

The Information Center & Bookstore will be open today and Tuesday, but closed all day Wednesday.

As always, stay tuned for more updates!

With calm weather in Lee Vining today, construction on the front of the store is proceeding … with walnut-blasting! Crushed walnut shells sprayed at the building remove layers of paint and plaster so that we can repair the facade with a clean start.

Crushed walnut shells are fulfilling the same function as sand when blasted at the building, taking off the old, crumbling layers of paint and plaster.

We covered the merchandise inside the store in plastic the other day to keep dust from covering our products. The store looks ghostly and abandoned right now, but we will be open from 9:00am until 5:00pm tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday.

Plastic sheeting covers the merchandise inside the store to protect it from wayward dust.

The Committee’s storefront has changed many times over the years. Enjoy this retrospective as we look forward to the next iteration!

The Mono Lake Committee sported bright paint in 1978 (left) and 1982 (right).

Prominent murals in 1990 (left) and 2008 (right). Photos: Elin Ljung, Geoff McQuilkin, and Committee archives.

Due to heavy winds forecast throughout the day, the first step of the renovations to the front of the Mono Lake Committee’s building will be postponed until tomorrow, April 22nd.

The Information Center & Bookstore will still be closed April 22nd, and will also be closed Monday, April 25th to continue the project. We will be open 9:00am to 5:00pm this weekend, April 23 and 24.

Stay tuned to the Mono-logue for updates on closures due to inclement weather. The walnut-blasting process can not be done in high winds, and the first step of the stucco application requires overnight temperatures over 32 degrees. Because we are located in the Eastern Sierra, inclement weather is likely to occur, and therefore requires our flexibility.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and we encourage visitors to check weather and road conditions before traveling to this area.

Every April, after the April 1st snow surveys are in, the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP) issues a preliminary April 1st runoff forecast, and then a final forecast update in May. The April 1st forecast for the Mono Basin for the April 1 2011–March 31 2012 runoff year is 147% of average!

We always get asked why the runoff forecast is different than the snowpack—if the snowpack is 169% of average, shouldn’t the runoff be the same? The simple answer is that the snowpack is extremely variable, and some of it soaks into the ground or sublimates into the air—so not all the water in the snow becomes runoff.

Since the State Water Board decision in 1994, only two years have had more than 147% runoff (more…)

Starting today, the Mono Lake Committee headquarters in Lee Vining will begin to look a little different.

If you have been to the Information Center & Bookstore in the last few years, you may have noticed that the facade has seen better days. The plaster is flaking off, revealing old layers of crumbling stucco, and its last coat of paint went on in … 1993! It’s time to fix things up.

Scaffolding goes up before the "walnut-shell blasting" process, which will remove peeling paint and flaking plaster.

This week the old paint will come off and the flaking plaster will come down, thanks to a “sandblasting” process that actually uses (more…)

On April 19, 2011, the Lee Vining WebCam moved from its long-time home looking out the attic vent above the Committee’s front door to the top of the roof, about two feet below the anemometer. The vent will be closed as part of the remodeling of the front of the building, which will begin this week (watch for a Mono-logue post about that coming soon).

In its former location, the WebCam captured (more…)

It’s now easier than ever to keep in touch with Mono Lake! For the latest updates on everything from local weather and road information, to upcoming events, to current lake level and stream flows, follow our posts on Twitter (@Mono-Lake or @MonoLakeCmte) or Facebook (Mono Lake or Mono Lake Committee).