This was a morning that just wouldn’t stop. I arrived at Mono Lake South Tufa shortly after 5:30 AM with sunrise still an hour and a half away. By the time the sun peeked over the freezing landscape there must have been a hundred more photographers squeezed in along the shoreline. But as the sun climbed higher the photographers disappeared one after another. An hour after sunrise very few of us were left. But this was a morning that just wouldn’t stop as the sun continued to bathe the world in beautiful light.

Mono Lake is famous in part for its tufa formations. These fantastic shapes are calcium carbonate sculptures formed as calcium rich springs filter up into the briny bottoms of Mono Lake. The lake surface receded as Los Angelus drank its waters 600 miles away. The lake was in danger of going the same way as Owens Lake to the south. But an agreement to save Mono Lake was reached and now each year the water level rises.