The forecast for the next five days shows rain and snow likely every day. If you are planning to visit the Mono Basin, pack a raincoat and a change of socks, as we will hopefully be getting some precipitation at last. And don’t worry—storm clouds make the basin even more dramatic and beautiful than usual.

Photo by Arya Degenhardt.

The clouds in the Mono Basin are varied and allow for a fun sport—cloud watching. If you are in the basin this week, see how many different clouds you can see (more…)

Calling all photographers! The call for submission for the 2013 Mono Lake Calendar is here. If you are interested in submitting, click here for the submission information and read on for details. The submission deadline is Monday, October 31, 2011.

Since 1986, the magnificent geological and ecological wonders of Mono Lake have been celebrated in the Mono Lake Calendar, published by the Mono Lake Committee. Sales of the calendar help to fund the efforts (more…)

The Mill Creek WebCam is back in action, and it’s better than ever! It had been down since 5:55pm on Monday, July 4th, after lightning fried the Ethernet port and the router that connected it to the Internet. During the downtime we found a good deal on webcams, so last weekend Geoff was able to install a brand-new camera to keep us updated on Mill Creek. Check out the great image quality of the new cam!

The brand-new Mill Creek WebCam's view south toward Mono Lake.

The other new webcam we bought will be installed at the Scenic Area Visitor Center in the next few months, which will offer a view without pink light streaks, dramatically improving this stunning view of Mono Lake.

Tioga overlook parking lot, Memorial Day 2011.

It was a cold and blustery Memorial Day at Tioga Pass, but that didn’t stop adventure- and photo-seekers from filling the Saddlebag Lake Road and Tioga overlook parking areas. About two inches of new snow sat on top of the older snowpack, with deeper drifts in places. Evidence of numerous recent wet avalanches was visible as cornices failed under the intense late-May sun. Gaylor Bowl was (more…)

As of Saturday, May 7, Caltrans had plowed as far as Tioga Lake, a little over a mile from the Yosemite National Park entrance at Tioga Pass. Highway 120 remained closed at the winter closure gate four miles from Highway 395. Even the cleared portion of the roadway still had areas that were narrow and need additional snow clearing. From the west, you can track the National Park crew’s progress here.

On Saturday May 7th, a small crew was working on widening the cleared area just above the green bridge. Note the waterfall on the left indicating that Ellery Lake is spilling.

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American White Pelicans over Mono Lake. Photo by Tom Piekunka.

In March and April the brine shrimp are too small and alkali flies are scarce. Mono Lake does not get a lot of attention from birds on their spring migration, especially piscivores. But the birds do pass by as they wing north along the Pacific Flyway. Recently a large flock of American White Pelicans transited the Mono Basin. It’s a rare and spectacular sight to see these massive birds soaring overhead. Tom Piekunka snapped this beautiful image of American White Pelicans circling over the eastern portion of Mono Lake. With a steady hand and 400mm lens Tom was able to capture the nuptial tubercles located on the upper bills, a feature that adult pelicans grow each year as the breeding season approaches.

Snow-covered hills above Highway 395.

As a Mono Lake Committee Project Specialist, my duties are many and varied. From working in the Information Center & Bookstore to drafting grant proposals to pulling invasive weeds, I never seem to be doing the same thing for more than a few hours at a time, and each new project is an exciting surprise.

Last week our communications team gave me an interesting assignment. Every issue of the Mono Lake Newsletter features a “benchmark”—a pair of photos, one old, one current, showing a before-and-after snapshot of a particular site in the Mono Basin. This time we had the “before” photo, a shot taken by Burton Frasher in 1938. But the “after” photo (more…)

Mono Lake's endemic brine shrimp (Artemia monica).

A few days ago I cross-country skied out to the shoreline to measure Mono Lake’s exact height above sea level, now 6381.99 feet. I knelt down at the water’s edge to admire the still green water, and could hardly believe my eyes.  First one tiny hatchling, then another, then five more full-size brine shrimp sculling in circles on their backs—I counted over twenty in all. (more…)

Last month the Lee Vining High School principal and teachers invited me to participate in a three-day outing to Yosemite National Park with the whole school. I felt very happy with the offer since I’ve wanted to do such a trip with the local high school for a long time. For many years I have worked with Lee Vining Elementary School doing environmental education outings, but never with the high school students. The field trip was divided into day-long outings and we went to places like Olmsted Point, Pothole Dome, Yosemite Valley, and Lembert Dome.

Lee Vining High School at the top of Lembert Dome in Yosemite.

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Undaunted by menacing storm clouds, a group of ten volunteers from Patagonia’s Reno store spent Friday afternoon uprooting invasive plants from sites along the Lee Vining Creek Trail. The task seemed pretty hopeless at first, but we removed a whopping sixty-six pounds of bouncing bet and cleared large sections of the trail. Thank you Patagonia!

Bouncing Bet -- before. Photo by Julia Runcie.

Bouncing Bet -- after! Photo by Julia Runcie.

There’s still a lot of work to be done, and we’ll be holding further “pulling parties” on three Wednesday mornings during the summer: July 28th, August 18th, and September 1st. Pulling Party Number 1 will take place from 9am to 12pm on Wednesday, July 28th at the Mill Creek culvert on Cemetery Road. Meet at the Mono Lake Committee at 9am to carpool to Mill Creek, or join us whenever you can at the culvert. Every little bit counts — stay for twenty minutes, an hour, or the whole morning! Email me with any questions. Watch out weeds!

Patagonia volunteers with 66 lbs of uprooted bouncing bet. Photo by Arya Degenhardt.