INTRODUCTION

If you’re travelling north on Highway 395, through Owens Valley and the small towns of Lone Pine, Independence and Bishop – you’ll eventually start to climb a long, gradual grade that rises nearly 4000 feet into the Inyo National Forest. For most people travelling along 395, their journey ends here - in Mammoth Lakes – an enormous vacation resort used for skiing, biking and water sports. But venture further along 395... and you’ll drop down into a large volcanic Basin. A watershed that for years captured Eastern Sierra snowmelt and dumped it into one of the strangest lakes you’ll ever see. For here lies Mono Lake. Five-and-a-half hours north of Los Angeles, Two-hours south of Lake Tahoe. In this episode of 395 we asked Paul Cotter to check out the place Mark Twain called “the loneliest place on earth.”

time lapse photography: Matt Maddox