At about 4am, I awoke to a panic attack with a feeling that the walls were closing in on me. I was right - when I turned to face the ceiling, I found it mere inches from my face. I quickly woke Joe up, and we scrambled out, with the top completely closing behind us. We'll get a safety arm to keep it propped when we get to Tahoe. I'm not there.
Mono lake is unusual because it has no outlet.
For thousands of years, streams have carried minerals into the lake, and evaporation has removed water from it. We visited the Visitor Center, watched a short film about the ecology of the lake, why it was in danger, and what sorts of wildlife exist in this otherwise seemingly barren high plains desert lake. Tufa are strange tower formations that would look much more at home in the center of a cave, or perhaps the surface of the moon. The lake had been in danger since the early 40's, when the city of Los Angeles began using the water from the feeder streams and diverting it away from the lake entirely. The lake started evaporating, with nothing to replenish it.