Sunrise light on a grove of tufa towers emerging from the water of Mono Lake with soft green and dusty-red wild grasses in the foreground, Canada geese in the shallow water with reflections of the rocky towers, and desert hills in the distance.

Celebrating state parks in the dark

Sunrise light on a grove of tufa towers emerging from the water of Mono Lake with soft green and dusty-red wild grasses in the foreground, Canada geese in the shallow water with reflections of the rocky towers, and desert hills in the distance.

On Thursday, December 1, California State Parks announced that the Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve is off the closure list—wonderful and long-awaited news!

Smartphones are key to working during a power outage: Arya found the State Parks' press release on her phone as Bartshe and Geoff work on theirs in the background.

In a strange twist of fate, we got the call via cell phone since we had lost power along with much of the Eastern Sierra a few hours before. Relying on the few smartphones in the office, we were able to read California State Parks’ press release and post our celebratory Mono-logue entry using the remaining power in our battery backups.

Morgan, Elin, and Geoff work feverishly with several drained battery backups to spread the good news about Mono Lake's state park. Photos by Arya Degenhardt.

As the afternoon faded to evening we paused to think about what the Mono Lake Reserve coming off the closure list means—grassroots efforts make a difference … continued protection for Mono Lake … places for people to visit next summer … saving a critical piece of our tourism-based economy … the list goes on. All of it worthy of celebrating!

2 Comments

  1. Thanks for what you do. This is great and happy news. I love Mono Lake. . . .and so do a lot of others! Onward and Upward, Good People.