Mono Lake, California

Mono Lake was like being in another world. Admittedly

almost all of the reactions that I have read seem to say that, but it is the only description I can think of.  From above, the water glittered turquoise.  At water level,

Mono Lake was no less amazing. The calcite tufas (more on them later) loomed like something from an alien planet. Since the lake was significantly lower than usual the tufas were more exposed than they would be normally. 

Before we even got to the tufas there were several signs regarding the ecosystem of the lake and how the tufas are formed. Just a heads up, this is the educational part, brace yourself.  Fresh water springs bubble up under the lake. These springs have lots of calcium in them, and the lake around them is full of carbonate. Now this is some pretty tricky chemistry, but bear with me. What do you get when you mix calcium

and carbonate; wait for it, calcium carbonate. I know- no one saw that coming.  Since calcium carbonate is essentially limestone it builds up around the spring and forms the tufas. 

After we saw the tufas we went to a museum about the lake and tufas.  We learned about the Native American tribe that lives there. One strange thing that we saw was a thing called a brine shrimp.  They are tiny little shrimp that was one on the main food sources for the Native Americans. There was a scale that would show how heavy someone is in brine shrimp.  I am the equivalent weight of about 770,370 brine shrimp, so just imagine how many shrimp it would take to satisfy someone’s hunger.  We also learned that there are three types of tufa: glacial, sand, and limestone.

My favorite was sand tufa, it was really delicate looking, and it made the coolest shapes.

As we drove away, the tufas looked so small. This was really weird because when we had been next to them, they were easily twice as tall as me.