Mono Lake South Tufa Trail Reviews

If you are staying at one of the locations off of highway 395 near the East entrance of Yosemite (Mammoth, June Lake or Lee Vining), this is an excellent warm-up hike that will provide visuals that you can't get elsewhere. We took the recommendation from the editor and went at sunset. The tufa actually changes color before your eyes. Pretty cool. There are free tours led by informed guides that help you understand the history of Mono Lake and some of its idiosyncrasies. You can call the Mono Lake Committee to get times for the tours if that is of interest to you. On our tour, the guide did a few interesting experiments to show the salinity of the water in Mono Lake (which helps create the tufa). If you liked Chemistry class in high school, this tour may be for you. The hike itself is basically flat and not too long, but there are some detours you can take to make the walk longer and check out Navy Beach nearby. It is no more than 10 minutes off of highway 395, and well worth the effort if you have an hour or two to kill.

My wife and I did this right after doing the crater hike on the road to the tufas. We took the "guided ranger walk." Our own little private tour guide since we were the only 2 on the hike.

Extremely easy. Interesting. Worth the time.

In the words of one of my colleagues, the Tufa Trail is like a Martian landscape. He wasn't kidding. It's a nice, easy trail with great photo opportunities, especially at dawn. A nice way to unwind after a strenuous hike the day before!