Mono Lake - Paoha Island Trip

Mono may be the most unique body of water you will ever paddle! Just half a dozen miles west of this 60-square-mile lake, the eastern Sierra peaks rise to over 12,000 feet. To the north the silver-producing Bodie Hills amass to 9,000 feet, and when you turn south, you are facing Mono Craters, a volcanic landscape as moonlike as anything you’re likely to see. In the center of the lake, Paoha Island is the site of one of the latest volcanic eruptions, around 250 years ago. Your paddle encounters more-than-customary resistance and your kayak rides high; Mono Lake water is 10% mineral. Dozens of earthquakes each day vibrate the region, and have for the past decade or more. Twenty miles south in the ancient Long Valley caldera, molten magma rising from deep within the earth has uplifted the valley 2 feet since the mid-1980s, a rapid event in geological time. So if you expect to paddle Mono and escape an aura of the unusual, think again. Aside from the ravishing scenery, from which paddlers can hardly tear their eyes, the bird life makes the next most powerful impression at Mono.