Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Eating
Whoa Nellie Deli
CALIFORNIAN
mains $10-20; 6:30am-9pm late-Apr-early Nov; )
After putting this unexpected gas station restaurant on the map, its famed chef has moved
on to Mammoth Lake, but locals think the food is still damn good. Stop in for delicious
fish tacos, wild buffalo meatloaf and other tasty morsels, and live bands two nights a
week.
Historic Mono Inn
CALIFORNIAN
760-647-6581;
www.monoinn.com
; 55620 Hwy 395; mains $10-28;
5-9pm Apr-mid-Nov)
A restored 1922 lodge owned by the family of photographer Ansel Adams, this is now an
elegant lakefront restaurant with outstanding California comfort food, fabulous wine and
views to match. Browse the 1000-volume cookbook collection upstairs, and stop in for the
occasional live band on the creekside terrace. It's located about 5 miles north of Lee Vin-
ing. Reservations recommended.
Mono Lake
North America's second-oldest lake is a quiet and mysterious expanse of deep blue water,
whose glassy surface reflects jagged Sierra peaks, young volcanic cones and the unearthly
tufa (
too
-fah) towers that make the lake so distinctive. Jutting from the water like drip sand
castles, tufas form when calcium bubbles up from subterranean springs and combines with
carbonate in the alkaline lake waters.
In
Roughing It,
Mark Twain described Mono Lake as California's 'dead sea.' Hardly.
The brackish water teems with buzzing alkali flies and brine shrimp, both considered del-
icacies by dozens of migratory bird species that return here year after year. So do about
85% of the state's nesting population of California gulls, which takes over the lake's vol-
canic islands from April to August. Mono Lake has also been at the heart of an environ-
mental controversy (
Click here
)
.
