The end of a wooden boardwalk is surrounded by brown grasses and tufa, with glassy blue lake water behind it.

Mono Lake Moment: David Gaines Memorial Boardwalk

Today’s Mono Lake Moment takes you on a quiet walk down the David Gaines Memorial Boardwalk at Old Marina. Where the boardwalk ends, you can see a frozen freshwater spring emerging from the base of an exposed tufa tower—a glimpse into how tufa forms underwater by fresh calcium-laden groundwater bubbling up into the lake and swirling with the carbonate-rich lake water to form solid calcium carbonate (CaCO3) that slowly builds the tufa tower.

Find all the other Moments we have filmed here at the Mono Lake Moments tag on our Videos page. You can also view the entire series on our YouTube channel.