Mono lake – High Strangeness

MONO LAKE, CALIFORNIA: A HIGH STRANGENESS HOT SPOT

Mono Lake is one of the strangest looking places in California.

Sitting along the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada near Lee Vining, the ancient alkaline lake is surrounded by volcanic terrain, desert, mountains and bizarre limestone formations known as tufa towers. With no outlet, salts and minerals have accumulated for thousands of years, creating a landscape that can look more like another planet than California.

But surrounding that landscape is an equally strange collection of stories involving Bigfoot, pale humanoids, witches, ghosts and mysterious lights.

One of the most interesting cases happened on May 18, 1991.

A family visiting Mono Lake brought along a VHS camcorder and filmed themselves exploring the shoreline. Nothing unusual was noticed at the time.

Seventeen years later, while watching the old tape, they discovered something moving between the tufa formations in the background.

For roughly two seconds, a large, dark, upright figure can be seen walking through a gap between the rocks.

The footage was eventually submitted to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. According to the BFRO investigation, the figure appeared bipedal, muscular, long armed and capable of taking unusually long strides. Investigators couldn’t determine exactly what it was, leaving possibilities ranging from a person to an unidentified animal.

Whatever the explanation, the footage remains one of California’s stranger alleged Bigfoot videos.

And Bigfoot isn’t the only strange humanoid associated with the Mono Basin.

There is also Penelope.

Penelope is an obscure creature from Eastern Sierra folklore, usually described as a tall, thin female humanoid with pale skin, elongated arms and legs, long light colored hair and an almost skeletal face.

Stories have placed similar creatures around Mono Lake, Tioga Lake and other areas of the Eastern Sierra.

One reported encounter describes a family driving near Mono Lake before sunrise when they spotted something pale crawling extremely low beside the road. The witness described long limbs, humanlike shoulders and movements unlike any animal he recognized.

Another story involves a father and son camping in the Sierra who heard terrifying screams during the night. Later they reportedly saw a nearly seven foot tall pale female figure near their RV. According to the story, a ranger told them similar creatures had supposedly been reported before and were sometimes called “Penelope.”

There is no evidence Penelope is a real creature, but similarities between reported descriptions have kept the legend alive.

Then there is the Salt Witch of Mono Lake.

According to a legend circulated online, an old woman once lived alone near the lake. After a violent encounter involving trappers, she supposedly disappeared into the water.

Later stories transformed her into something supernatural.

Travelers supposedly encountered an old woman appearing from nowhere to guide lost people through the Mono Basin. Others claimed to see her emerging from the lake before mysteriously disappearing. A darker version says the Salt Witch punishes people entering the area with malicious intentions.

The story is difficult to trace to reliable early sources, so the Salt Witch is better considered modern Mono Lake folklore rather than documented Native tradition.

There IS an older supernatural tradition associated with the lake.

Paoha Island sits in Mono Lake and contains volcanic features, hot springs and steam vents. An 1889 geological account recorded a Paiute tradition describing diminutive spirits with long, flowing hair appearing within the steam rising from hot springs. The beings were called “Pa-o-ha,” and the island’s modern name preserves that connection.

Stories of strange beings around Mono Lake apparently existed long before modern cryptid reports.

The skies above Mono Basin have produced weird stories as well.

The National UFO Reporting Center contains reports from the area, including a 1999 sighting describing a large rectangular object with lights hovering near Mount Warren. Another report describes a bright bluish white orb near the eastern shore that allegedly rose from near ground level and silently moved through the sky.

Add in abandoned mines, forgotten settlements, mining history and nearby ghost towns such as Bodie, and the entire Mono Basin develops a strange atmosphere after dark.

Maybe there’s nothing connecting these stories.

Maybe an ancient alkaline lake surrounded by volcanic mountains simply looks strange enough that strange stories naturally grow around it.

But when you combine a mysterious figure accidentally captured on VHS, Bigfoot reports, Penelope crawling through the Eastern Sierra, the Salt Witch, spirits appearing in volcanic steam and unexplained lights above the lake…

Mono Lake starts looking like more than a strange place.

It starts looking like a high strangeness hot spot.