Although the sign on 395 says 120 west was closed it was open to
the cut off for the Mono Lake south tufa formations. The cut off
was plowed just enough to park the camper for the night. The
hike down to the lake was pretty much packed snow from the
traffic, although I only saw a couple people while I was there.
The closed Kiosk announced that a National Park Pass was no good
for admittance. The closed Kiosk had announced the same thing
while I had been there in September.
It took less than
an hour to get down to the lakeside and the black swarms of
brine flies that had been there in September were gone. In
September the brown earth had been moving black flies. Although
it was three in the afternoon the water was like glass. On my
way back up to the camper I passed an European coming down to
take sunset pictures. He got better color than I did but the
mirror suffered from late evening winds.
That night the
temperatures dropped into the mid teens. The nighttime
temperatures around Lone Pine and Independence had been in the
high twenties. I was up for dawn pictures as usual but an fog
moved in and hugged the lake. |
