On this our last day, we made our way home slowly by stopping at some more interesting and beautiful sites.
First stop was at Obsidian Dome. Here we found a mountain of glassy, black boulders. The kids were super excited to climb the Obsidian rock stack. They would have scrambled straight to the top if we would have let them. Yes, there is another geologic explanation for why this strange heap of Obsidian lies where it does, but I'll spare you this one! :)
Then we checked out what ended up being my favorite stop of the whole week-- the Tufa Reserve at Mono Lake. I'd use my thesaurus to come up with a different word, but, over-used or not, "AMAZING!" is the best one to describe the views here.
This hike was also a non-strenuous one, more of a stroll than a hike and with no shortage of grand things to take in (including that sky! Isn't it awesome?).
Okay, so here's the scoop on this strange lake. It once had 7 different inlets feeding it, but in the 70's some of our state's big cities started redirecting and draining those sources for their own water use. This made Mono Lake shrink to half of its original size. Its salt content became much higher as its water quickly evaporated in the dry high altitude. Also, these hardened calcium towers, called tufa, made from underwater springs, became exposed.
Kind of astonishing that where we stood and hiked (and for probably at least a half mile out from shore) used to be underwater at one time!
Because the lake has such a high salt content, nothing lives in it anymore except some brine shrimp, which the girls were catching.
The story of this now-dead lake is kind of a sad one, but it sure makes a cool landscape to walk around!
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