On Thursday, July 14, a group of employees from Patagonia’s Reno outlet visited us in the Mono Basin. In the morning we treated our visitors to a canoe tour on the lake. The weather was beautiful and we saw hundreds of gulls and phalaropes and trillions of brine shrimp.

Patagonia visitors enjoying a morning paddle on the lake.

In the afternoon we headed down to Old Marina, where the Patagonia team put in an hour’s work pulling invasive (more…)

According to National Park Service representatives, Tioga Pass into Yosemite National Park will open this Saturday, June 18th, at 8:00am.

Due to an immense snowpack and a late, chilly spring, the road has remained closed far longer than normal, and thousands of visitors will be relieved to find their drive over the Sierra made shorter and the beautiful Tuolumne Meadows area open at last.

Please continue to check the latest road report from CalTrans, as conditions may change at any moment and we have no guarantee that the pass will actually open as planned.

For a look at the Tioga Pass opening and closing dates since 1933, check out this spreadsheet on the Mono Basin Clearinghouse.

Summer may finally be here!

Dangerously high winds on Monday night tore off the “floor” of Lee Vining’s historic Upside-Down House and sent it crashing into the side of the Mono Basin Historical Society’s Old Schoolhouse Museum.

The now floor-less Upside-Down House. Its "roof" can be seen behind the house against the wall of the Old Schoolhouse Museum.

The Upside-Down House was built in 1956 by silent film star and long-time Mono Basin resident Nellie Bly O’Bryan. It’s just what it sounds like: (more…)

Lee Vining Canyon looking toward Tioga Pass. Photo by Elin Ljung.

As of this morning, Highways 108, 89, and 4 are all open, providing access to Mono Lake from the west side of the Sierra Nevada mountains. We have some more weather coming our way this week, which can close these roads at any time. Be sure to check the latest news from CalTrans before planning your trip.

Although Highway 120 west (Tioga Pass) remains closed and unlikely to open for several more weeks, the lower gate has been opened and it is now possible to drive 12 miles up to the Tioga Pass entrance station. The gate at Tioga Pass is closed. Please drive with extreme care as small rockfalls are still common along this road.

NASA’s controversial research about arsenic-metabolizing bacteria in Mono Lake continues to stir up debate. On Friday the journal Science published several articles contesting the validity of the findings, but Dr. Felisa Wolfe-Simon and her colleagues stand behind their work. Read more here.

NASA researchers on Mono Lake in November 2010. Photo by Arya Degenhardt.

CalTrans has begun road work on Highway 270 to Bodie State Historic Park, removing the old paved surface and repaving. The work entails closing one land of the road at a time, and there will be delays of no longer than 20 minutes. Work will take place every week day, but on weekends and on the Friday before and the Tuesday after Memorial Day weekend (5/27 and 5/31) the road will be open with no construction work or delays. The barrier at the beginning of the dirt section of the road has been removed, but conditions in the town itself remain muddy and snowy.

The historic Mono Inn, closed since 2008, will reopen this Friday. The Inn’s beautiful location overlooking the west shore of Mono Lake, its summer schedule of wine tastings and live music, and its gift shop and restaurant will be sure to draw both locals and tourists throughout the season. Be sure to stop by, say hello, and have a glass of wine while you take in the view! Email the Mono Inn for more details, or call (760) 647-6581 to make a reservation.

The Mono Inn at Mono Lake will open on May 20 for the 2011 season. Photo courtesy of Christopher O'Meally.

Businesses in the Mono Basin are (more…)

Peak 12,240 as seen from McCoy Station on Mammoth Mountain. Photo by Arya Degenhardt.

Today in Washington, California Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer reintroduced a bill to rename an Eastern Sierra mountain peak after local environmental leader Andrea Lawrence. The bill was first proposed last year by Representative Buck McKeon, but did not become law. Read more about Boxer’s proposal.

Peak 12,240 is located just east of Donohue Peak on the border of Yosemite National Park. We look forward to its renaming as a fitting tribute to Andrea in the heart of the landscape she worked so hard to protect.

The Public Trust Doctrine, a principle of law that requires the government to protect and maintain certain resources for public use, was invoked back in the 1980s during the legal battle to save Mono Lake. Now, a group called Our Children’s Trust is claiming that the earth’s atmosphere constitutes a public trust resource, and has sued the federal government for failing to protect it. Read more here.

The Mono Lake Committee was joined last Friday evening by a wonderful group of Andrea Lawrence’s family, friends, and supporters at the first annual Andrea Lawrence Award Dinner.

The gathering was held at McCoy Station on Mammoth Mountain, where guests had a spectacular sunset view of the landscape Andrea deeply loved. Ron Nichols, new General Manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power, spoke to a packed house (more…)