Mono Lake is a large shallow Soda Lake on the California / Nevada border, East of the Sierra Nevada range.


The lake has no outlet and, due to evaporation, contains very high levels of alkali salts.

This inhospitable environment actually produces a varied and unusual ecosystem based on Brine shrimps and Brine flies which form great black swarms around the edges of the lake.

The shrimp and flies attract migratory birds.

The edges of Mono Lake sprout strange rock formations, known to Geologists as Tufa, a form of limestone created by precipitation when calcium rich fresh water reacts with the alkali soda rich lake water.


Mono Lake shrank dramatically, almost to the point of being permanently lost, in the 1980’s due to the diversion of water, flowing into the lake, to the Los Angeles aqueduct.

The practice has now ceased and the lake has stabilised, but remains much smaller than it once was.