Mono Lake covers 65 square miles in California’s eastern Sierra Nevada. It’s more than a million years old, has no outlet, and holds no fish. It does hold trillions of brine shrimp, calcium-carbonate towers rising straight out of the water, and enough migratory birds each year to rank among the most important stopovers in the West.
About five miles east of the town of McCloud, a side road turns off Highway 89 at the sign for Fowler’s Campground. Over the next mile and a half, that road passes all three falls – Lower, Middle, and Upper – each with its own parking lot a short walk to the water.
This is the McCloud River, cutting through the Shasta-Trinity National Forest on its way down from Mount Shasta’s southern flank. Lower, Middle, and Upper Falls sit close enough together that you can walk the whole stretch on one trail or drive to each one separately – from parking lot to parking lot.
