This is Mono (pronounced moh'-noh) Lake, adjacent to Lee Vining in Central California. It is large, shallow and was formed more than 750,000 years ago as a terminal lake in a basin that has no outlet to the ocean. Because it lacks an escape, dissolved salts make the lake very alkaline and saline. It's claim to fame is the brine shrimp that grow here and feed a plethora of birds.
Mono Lake also boasts a shoreline of "tufa." Tufa is a variety of limestone, made when elements ooze up through the bottom of a salty lake in porous, dirty-white mounds that look a bit like dried white coral. Tufa columns are an unusual form of tufa typically stacked in towers. Pictured is Rabbit Brush, a shoreline of tufa, the salty lake and the Sierras in the background.
Tufa lining the shore.
I preferred the tufa in silhouette. What it reminded me, once again, is that no photo comes and knocks at my door. I get shots of this incredible planet because I get away from my computer and what's familiar to me and go explore the world. The least learning happens when we are hunkered down in our small world.
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