Travel Haiku - Mono Lake Yosemite National Park (California) Poem by john tiong chunghoo

Mono Lake
nature's knobby hands cast
a bleakness over me

Mono Lake
a stone cold edgy prelude
to a ghost town

Mono Lake
old haunched cold women
look over at me

Mono Lake
rows of towering bleakness
over the water

Located 13 miles east of Yosemite National Park, immense Mono Lake is an ecologic and geologic wonder. Ringed by volcanoes, twice as salty as the ocean, and at least 760,000 years old, the lake also features hauntingly beautiful tufa towers—knobby limestone structures formed as the alkaline lake water mixes with fresh spring water—looming above the surface. Hike or bike the surrounding area; relax and grab soft-serve at Mono Cone in the nearby town of Lee Vining; or tour the deserted streets and businesses of Bodie, an eerily intact 19th-century mining ghost town.