Welcome to the Mono Basin Visitor Center in Lee Vining. You will not need to enter the Visitor Center building to complete the Virtual. To claim a find on this Virtual Reward, you must complete all of the following:
A. Post a photo that includes a readable piece of paper indicating your geocaching name and the date (month, day and year) of your visit with the front of the Visitor Center building visible in the background of your photo. The photo must be posted with your log. Note that visits prior to the date of publication do not qualify for logging a find on this Virtual Reward.
ADDITIONALLY, besides the required photo, message the answers to the following questions to our Geocaching Account (Yosemite John and Debbie) through Geocaching's Message Center at the time of your log. (NOTE: Do not include your answers in your posted log.)
B. To the right of the Visitor Center's front entrance, you will find a short, curving walkway that showcases four different types of rocks. The name of the type of rock will appear on the sign adjacent to each sizable specimen. Message us the name of each of the FOUR different rocks featured.
C. A terrace to the left of the Visitor Center will take you to an overlook of Mono Lake where you will find numerous metal informational signs along the low rock wall bordering the terrace. You will visit three of the signs to obtain answers as follows:
1. Look for the sign titled County Park. According to the sign, what leads you through birding areas and meadows of wildflowers?
2. Look for the sign titled Volcanic Islands. According to the sign, in what year did an event occur that caused gulls to move to nearby islets?
3. Look for the sign titled South Tufa. According to the sign, tufa towers were formed by (two words).
BACKGROUND ON MONO LAKE AND GENERAL INFORMATION
Mono Lake in Mono Basin is an ancient, living lake in North America that has been in existence for over 760,000 years. The lake was formed over many ice ages and glacial activity. In actuality, the lake before you is a fraction of its original size when it was known as Lake Russell. Thousands of years ago the lake was 800 feet deep, 28 miles long, and 18 miles wide whereas today it is approximately 160 feet deep and half its original size. It is notable for its otherwordly sight with its weirdly formed tufa towers on shore and emerging from the water, volcanic islands and unique ecosystems. Like most salt lakes, water flows into but not out of Mono Lake with the ebb and flow of feeder streams and evaporation creating variations in the lake's salinity and alkalinity. Many salt lakes around the world eventually dry up, however Mono Lake thrives from receiving fresh water from five feeder streams, such as Lee Vining Creek, whose waters descend from the nearby Sierra Nevada Mountains and the seasonal regional snowpack melts.
A stew of naturally occuring chemicals come from area rocks, salts from the high desert soils, and sulfates from area volcanic rocks and granite. The end result is that Mono Lake is three times saltier and eighty times more alkaline than the ocean. The famous tufa formations are limestone towers with about an inch of tufa forming underwater every day. The lake's ecosystem of alkaki flies, brine shrimp and algae support millions of birds. Therefore, ensuring the health of these tiny species ensures the health of the lake's entire ecosystem. Environmental regulations and conservation efforts play an important role in contributing to the ongoing health of the lake and protection of vital and fragile ecosystems.
You can learn a great deal from the outdoor informational signs at any time of the year, or from a visit inside the Visitor Center, however note that the Visitor Center building interior itself is open seasonally. You can check fs.usda.gov website for current conditions of the Visitor Center and operational hours, should you wish to time your visit to enter the Visitor Center building. However, again, you will not need to access the interior of the Visitor Center to complete the Virtual. According the the forest service website, drinking water is available 7 days a week, flush toilets are available during operation hours, there is free parking and the closest town is Lee Vining (where you can find traditional caches, earthcaches, and adventure labs).
Virtual Rewards 4.0 - 2024-2025
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between January 17, 2024 and January 17, 2025. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 4.0 on the Geocaching Blog.